Maggie: Remember the tennis tournament I was talking about? I won! It felt amazing. All the hard work paid off.
Maggie: Are you still alive?!?!
Maggie: I’m sorry if the video call was uncomfortable for you. I didn’t find it awkward! I’m here if you need someone to talk to. We can practice speaking on the phone if you want. A regular phone call. You can teach me how to improve in chess or something.
Maggie: By the way, you shouldn’t let the stutter bother you. It’s really nothing. Good luck with school. Take care.
Leland looked at the texts, curled up in bed.
The effects of his superpowers were much worse than he’d anticipated. For the past three days, he’d been in pain. His limbs were still sore and vicious headaches randomly spiked throughout the day. Even the smallest of chores and tasks were now a whole ordeal.
But at least it made sense. Freezing time was a big deal.
Leland: I’m still alive. But not feeling too well. Nah, the video call was fine. I didn’t find it awkward. Sorry for being distant.
Maggie: No problem! Do you want to play chess?
Leland: No. Not really feeling like it. Congrats on winning the tennis tournament. I assume you were overpowered and showed no mercy.
Maggie: Thank you… and of course. To be fair, they put up a good challenge. I’m not going to pretend they didn’t.
Leland: Let’s call.
Maggie: Normal?
Leland: Yes.
Maggie: Are you sure? Didn’t you say it made you uncomfortable?
Leland: It does but I can’t keep living like this. If I want to get rid of this stutter and social anxiety, I’m going to have to face it head-on and confront my fears.
As Leland typed the words, his mind resisted the idea, convincing him to back down and reminding him of the Chemistry presentation. Wasn’t he just going to slam face-first into failure again?
Leland: Actually, never mind. It’s pointless.
Maggie: Don’t chicken out now. Let’s do it!
Leland’s phone rang and after some hesitation, he accepted the call.
“Hey,” Maggie said. “There’s no need to worry, see?”
Leland didn’t respond, instead focusing on the brick wall which towered above him in his mind, its height and width seemingly endless. He had to use his superpowers… it was the only way.
“Come on, Leland,” Maggie said in a teasing tone. “Don’t be shy. We’ve talked before! There’s nothing to worry about.”
Leland closed his eyes, blocking out her voice. Deep in the dark recesses of his mind was a door that needed to be opened, a trigger for the superpower. He simply needed to find it.
Almost there.
The door opened a sliver, and a tingling sensation burst throughout his body.
“How was your day?”
“Oh my god. What was that low voice? You sounded badass.”
The door slammed shut. Leland pushed once more.
“What are you talking about? This is my normal voice.”
Leland spasmed under his bed covers, clenching both fists. Every pain receptor switched on. He felt as if his body was engulfed in flames.
“No way, don’t play with me,” Maggie said. “Have you been trolling me this whole time? You don’t have a stutter? If that is your real voice, I am impressed, good sir.”
Leland faded in and out of consciousness. Slowly, he lost the mental battle. The door closed along with his will to fight it.
Though he smiled weakly.
For once, he hadn’t made a fool of himself. Maggie even liked his voice. There was much work to be done… but it was a start.
“Hello? Leland? Are you still there?”
“Still here. I have to go. Goodnight.”
Leland hung up, fainting immediately afterward.
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His body still throbbing, Leland dragged himself out of bed. He made his way wearily to the bathroom and arched an eyebrow as he caught sight of a sticky note stuck to his forehead in the mirror's reflection. In rough, bold letters, it read
Check email.
Leland groaned. He knew who the culprit was. Staress must have told Cadell to put the note on his forehead using a portal. Already, they were invading his privacy.
“Hurry up!” His grandad yelled in another room. “You’ll be late for school!”
Leland quickly took out his phone and checked his emails. The subject of the email titled Superhero Practice led to him slowly banging his head against the bathroom mirror. He completed his morning routine and walked to school, all the while his eyes narrowing as if someone had told him a bad joke.
Then he froze. An obvious idea hit him.
Dull pain receptors, he commanded.
His lips twisted into a smirk. It worked. He resisted the strong urge to throw his head back and cackle like a supervillain, instead deciding to chuckle.
But he wasn’t done yet.
“Eliminate stutter,” he said, opening the mental door. “I’m free! I’m really f–” The brick wall stood firm.
Well… it was worth a try.
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Even with double Chemistry lessons, Leland’s morning was akin to a blood-curdling rollercoaster ride. Every ten minutes or so, he experimented with his superpowers, gaining one extra piece to the puzzle and discovering what was or wasn’t possible. He was pretty sure his nearby classmates thought he was a madman, as they could likely overhear him whispering to himself.
Biology was actually helpful. He asked his teacher about the effects of various hormones in the body and managed to increase cortisol levels to such a degree that he had a strong urge to curl up in a ball and cry. During his fourth lesson, physics, Leland flipped to the back of his exercise book and began scribbling words…
“Effect one: I can change the way my body behaves. This seems to include temporary changes in the hormonal and nervous system, but I’m sure there’s much more I could do. I have yet to experiment with any obvious, less specific physical changes, such as super strength, speed, flight or even teleportation. There is a lot of potential here…”
Leland paused, smiling slightly. Potential for what exactly?
“... for convenience, of course. I’m no superman.”
The famous 'With great power comes great responsibility' quote was pretty cool in the Spider-Man films, but when applied to Leland’s real-life circumstances, it scared the shit out of him. It screamed moral obligation and overwhelming responsibility. What if he just wanted to be a normal civilian and get his eight hours of sleep instead of beating up criminals in the dead of night? What if he preferred watching fights, rather than being in them? What if he wanted to save lives without risking his own?
Besides, he just wasn’t that main character type of guy. It wasn’t that he was selfish. Leland tapped his pen against paper, changing his mind. Maybe he was.
“Effect two: I can alter the rules of reality. Although, I can’t seem to freeze time again. But maybe that’s a good thing. I can still heal wounds but not through reversing. (Tested with a paper cut.) It appears that some powers have a limited number of uses, so I'll need to be careful when using specific superpowers unless it's absolutely necessary. I can also alter the environment. Again, a lot more experimenting to do but I was able to turn the colour of my eraser from white to black. It creeped me out.
Could I control someone's mind?”
The school bell rang.
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“What’s up, Lee? Hurry up. This better be good.”
Leland meshed his hands together and leaned forward in his chair in the library. He stared at Mark with a serious expression. “B-before we begin, I need to ask for your p-permission to be part of an experiment. It will o-only take a few seconds.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Mark said quickly. “Hurry up.”
Leland took a deep breath. “Take a seat.”
Mark quickly sat down at a nearby chair. “What was that?!” he yelled, eyes bulging.
“Shh!” Leland’s heart raced. He wasn’t sure whether to celebrate or anguish. “I know this is insane but I have superpowers.”
“Insane is one way to put it…” Mark stared in disbelief, then laughed nervously. “That’s impossible! That’s awesome!”
Leland smiled slightly. For some reason, he felt a weight lifted. He was glad someone else knew about his superpowers that wasn’t a famous musician or a retired superhero convict. Realistically, he couldn’t see himself holding on to such a secret for so long.
“When did you get them?”
Leland answered truthfully, retelling the whole incident.
“Damn. So you saved my life? Thank you, Lee! I had no clue. No wonder you seemed shaky. Why are you telling me this?”
“What do you mean?
“Come on, superhero,” Mark said, elbowing Leland in the ribs. “You’re supposed to keep your identity hidden.”
“I’m n-not a superhero.”
“You saved my life with superpowers. That fits the mould if you ask me.”
Leland sighed. “I'm just a g-guy who happens to have superpowers and saw his best friend almost die. I’m not saving anyone else and there’s no identity to hide. Anywho, since the e-experiment w-worked, I’m going to use my a-ability one last time on you so that there’s no chance you’ll tell anyone. It’s nothing personal.”
“Nah, that’s a good idea,” Mark said. “ To be fair, I would tell everyone. I’m a blabber mouth.”
“I know you are,” Leland said. “H-here we go… From now on, you’re unable to reveal any information about my superpowers to anyone. O-okay, try m-messaging someone about it.”
“It worked,” Mark said immediately.
“You didn’t even move. H-how do you know?”
“Trust me, it worked. There’s like a mental barrier stopping me from wanting to do it. It’s hard to explain. I’m not sure if I’m making any sense. Do you understand?”
Leland gripped Mark’s shoulder as he thought about the invisible wall that won against him every time he opened his mouth. “Y-you have n-no idea, friend. You have no idea.”
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The email Staress had sent him titled “Superhero practice” contained a timetable which included all of his school-related responsibilities, such as studying, along with new “superhero training sessions.” Leland scoffed, staring at the timetable on his phone while strolling home. He had no intention of attending any of the training sessions, and even if he did, he wouldn't know where to find them.
Equipped with his newfound superpowers, he headed to the park which he now intended to go to on a regular basis. It was going to be one of his new training environments for combatting his social anxiety. The task he gave himself was simple–Talk to any stranger and strike up a conversation. After the nightmare chemistry presentation, he had tried talking to people in the park, but failed miserably. But now things were different. Now he had superpowers.
Leland sat down on the same bench where he met Staress and inhaled deeply.
I can’t do this. Come on. I got this.
The park was fairly busy on a warm Friday evening. A group of adults played football in the far distance and ahead of him was a portion of long winding footpath.
All he had to do was wait. Someone would come and then he would…
Leland gulped. How do conversations go again? I just greet them and then… A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he struggled to come up with a strategy for initiating and prolonging a conversation. It wasn’t long before a wave of self-loathing hit him. He was dangerously close to becoming a grandmaster in chess, but he wasn’t sure how to talk to another human being properly? Was he just going to humiliate himself again for no reason?
No! Things are different! Get out of your own head. Just use your superpowers!
He leaned forward, sweat covering his forehead and looked to the right. A middle aged woman walking her dog gradually made her way towards him; it was the same one he had been unable to talk to last time.
As Leland searched for the powers deep in the recesses of his mind, he began to realise the extent of his social anxiety. It was a monster that he had locked away for years by avoiding social situations. He never needed to talk to cashiers in stores when self-serving checkouts existed. He exclusively engaged in conversation with familiar faces, and when a stranger approached, typically just to inquire about the time, he responded by casually displaying his watch.
The woman pretended to throw teasingly, and the dog eagerly followed her gesture. Then, with a playful twist, she threw a tennis ball, prompting the dog to dash after it. Slowly, the woman walked after the dog, getting further and further away.
Leland’s body tingled, then burned. The brick wall in his mind fizzled away. He was free. He could speak. There were no excuses. He could do it. Surely. He could do it.
The cold wind whistled. His powers vanished and seconds later so did the woman.
Leland looked at the concrete path ahead of him blankly. Rage simmered. Same old, same old.
“Reactivate all pain receptors.”
Right there and then, drowning in shame, Leland made a decision— he wasn’t going home until he talked to another living organism. He stood up and quickly checked the time. It was quarter to eight, which meant the nearest convenience store was fifteen minutes away from closing. He broke into a sprint.
Keep it simple and don’t overthink it, Leland thought. You’re going to talk to the cashier and say hi to them and ask them how their day was. You’re going to settle this once and for all.
A purple portal suddenly materialised. Leland skidded to a halt, changed direction and ran once again. More portals appeared yet he side stepped each one and accelerated. With a smirk on his face, he weaved between vertical rows of trees and made a beeline for the park exit, bursting between a maze of portals. He dived, rolled and spun, almost as if he was back home dancing in his bedroom and began to laugh, sensing Cadell’s frustration was growing.
The portals multiplied, opening and closing more frequently until a horizontal row of them blocked the exit. Bystanders gasped in amazement.
“Flight!” Leland shrieked. He jumped just as a portal formed underneath him, and gravity became a myth as he rapidly soared high in the air.
Leland flew higher and higher, laughing as a trail of portals failed to catch him. Instinctively, he knew how to control the power. First, he levelled the birds he once envied. Then he waved at an airplane, tasting the condensed water vapour in the clouds.
I’m free. This is what I wanted all along.
“M-More!” Leland boomed. “Fly, fly, fly!”
Leland accelerated as a trail of portals chased after him until, all of a sudden, he couldn’t breathe. He focused on the sound of the whipping wind, and it was one of the most peaceful sounds he had ever heard. With his back faced against the Earth, he stared at the sky. It was the same old blue sky he had seen countless times yet, strangely, he was mesmerised.
He plummeted, swiftly succumbing to a loss of consciousness.