Superhero

Chapter 74

Addison sat in front of the television, eating a chicken pie as she watched the night news.
"Superhero saves the day," the newscaster says in the headlines.
Addison eagerly waited for the actual news to come in, interested to see what the Superhero did to actually save the day.
To her surprise, it was the first news on the list.
"Superhero jumps in just in time to rescue colliding trains," Addison gasped as soon as she heard that. "A scheduling error overlooked the clashing routes of a cargo train and a commercial commuter. The Superhero was quick to jump in and transport the passenger train to the safety of a nearby airfield." Footage of the Superhero and a train appearing at the Spring Valley Airport runway was shown next. "Thanks to the Superhero, both trains were unscathed, reporting zero injuries."
"Whoa..." Addison gasped.
But then she wondered. How the heck did the Superhero end up in the shop? The airport was relatively far from it.
But then she came up with a theory. Superhero transported to as far as his powers could allow from the airfield, and the shop may have been the safest lot.
Addison wasn't sure what to say. The Superhero had saved two trains, both cargo and passengers, crashed into the shop she works at, rescued her from another robbery, and then ran off when Fiolina walked in.
That was one very eventful night.
Addison realised that it was time for class and quickly grabbed her things before going downstairs.

"Jake told me something mysterious happened today?" Giuseppe said as soon as Addison sat down. "You met with the Superhero?"
"Yeah, he decided to take a breather in my shop and managed to prevent a robbery while he was at it too," Addison shrugged. "So yeah. I met with the Superhero."
Giuseppe nodded. He paused for a bit before speaking. "Do you think it's Jordan?"
Addison's eyes widened. "Umm... maybe? I mean he did run away after coming face-to-face with Fiolina. She thinks it might be him too."
"I think so too..." Jake frowned. "And I think he got it during high school. The pressure is what made him like this back then and now too."
The front door was slammed open, gaining the attention of all three of them. Jordan stepped in, breathing heavily, and he swept his gaze through the room before slamming the door shut behind him. Felicia quickly ran down the steps to look and gasped when she saw him like that. Jordan turned to her, causing her to yelp, and stomped past her up the stairs. Felicia was left to just stare after him in surprise.
She recovered and joined the other three in the dining hall, slumping down on the chair next to Addison.
"You okay, Felicia?" Addison asked.
"Yeah, but what's wrong with Jordan?!" Felicia gasped. "Something's very wrong with him, I'm sure."
"Well, he wouldn't tell us about it, Mrs. Kennedy," Giuseppe shrugged. "We all tried asking him, even his girlfriend, but he wouldn't breathe a word."
"Not even to Jacob?" Felicia said in surprise.
Jake shook his head. "No, Mom. Not even to me."
Felicia's eyes widened as she gaped. "What is wrong with this boy? He's usually so friendly, he even made me a painting to make him like him better and he's like this?"
"I almost got myself killed once when I was heavily drunk... the Superhero saved me from being hit by a car," Jake sighed before continuing. "My car was parked right behind me but for some reason, I thought it was across the street.
"I didn't see a car coming towards me and almost got hit," Jake went on. "The Superhero was quick to grab me, transporting me to the side of the road. Imagine my surprise when the first thing he did was slap me."
The others gasped when he said that.
"Though he didn't say a word, I knew he was angry, even pointing at the road and then at me. It looked like he was even worried for me."
"What did he do after that?" Addison asked.
"He brought me to my car and pushed me in before transporting me back home," Jake continued. "He disappeared before I could even thank him."
"Whoa..." Addison said in awe, imagining everything happening as if in an action movie. "And then?"
Jake frowned at her enthusiasm and went on. "I somehow managed to park in the garage and entered the house. I sat down in the living room and Jordan came in. He quickly rushed to me and started scolding me for drinking, saying how I shouldn't just because he does."
"And that's when I came in, suspecting that Jordan was the one who persuaded you to drink," Felicia chimed in.
"You didn't even let him or me speak," Jake sighed. "Mom, it wasn't him who brought me to the bar, it was my work friends. Those idiots thought I needed to loosen up and tricked me into drinking cocktail after cocktail, lying to me that it was just fruit punch. They recently got fired for drinking on the job."
Addison nodded thoughtfully. "So... you think it was Jordan who saved you?"
"Like I said, the Superhero seemed genuinely worried about me after saving me, even slapping me to say that it was stupid of me," Jake pointed out. "And then Jordan came running in like he knew I was in trouble. It was almost as if... he knew something was up."
"Maybe he really is the Superhero," Felicia piped up. "Now that I think about it, he always comes up as if he gets beaten up by an angry mob of gangsters every night."
"It's definitely him, I can smell it," Giuseppe determinedly said. "But seriously, though... what's bothering him?"
"I even saw Superhero sobbing alone in a dark alleyway once," Addison added. "Something is bothering him for sure."
Everything was silent for a few moments.
"I thought you guys were supposed to be having a study session?" Felicia piped up.
Galante cleared his throat and immediately started working on an essay.

Addison sat at her desk, writing down her findings in the case file. It was getting thicker and thicker by the day since she had to add sheet after sheet of paper due to the number of words she was writing in it.
She even copied down everything that she documented on her phone, word for word, and added a few more pages to her file. Jake's story went in too, and even the way Jordan barged in was written down.
Addison even emphasised on the part where Superhero seemed stunned upon coming face-to-face with Fiolina and how he seemed even scared upon seeing her.
If he is indeed Jordan, this even suggests that he was afraid she might identify him upon seeing him so close. Though masked, it was still easy to sense the fear he felt.
Addison closed the case file and slipped it into her folder, propping it up against the bookend on the desk. It was time for bed and she wouldn't want to be late for Galante's Academic Writing class the next morning.