The Cloak Guard

School Attack, Part 1

Franklin had come home last night in a bad mood. Though that wasn't surprising as it would be more surprising if he was in a good mood after getting beaten up and nearly killed by a super-powered criminal and his cronies.

Fortunately, whatever strikes that masked man had made against him hadn't had that much affect thanks to his impervious skin, a fact which he was thankful for as he didn't look as bad as he felt when he walked through the door.

"Hey baby, you ok?" his mom asked as soon as she saw him.

"Yeah, I'm good," he replied. Knowing she would have gotten mad that he was late, he had sent a text every few minutes saying where he was, explaining that there had been an accident holding up the streets and traffic. Fortunately, she had bought it. Though from the look on Angie's face at the table, she clearly didn't.

He put on a happy expression all throughout dinner, ignoring the looks Angie shot his way and answering every question about school, friends, and whatever else his mom threw at him. She was thrilled he had made two new friends and that they didn't suck, a fact Franklin was also proud of considering his last friends weren't really what he considered 'friends.'

Still, he was glad she only saw his face and couldn't see what was happening beneath the table. His leg hadn't stopped trembling throughout dinner. He had just been in a fight with real-life criminals. While wearing a hoodie. Nothing else, just the hoodie. No mask or anything like that. Nothing that could really hide his identity. Just that damn hoodie.

He kept expecting the criminals to come breaking down the door, barging in with guns blazing. And it would be all on him. But what else could he have done? It wasn't like they really chose to be in that fight. Madison had gotten trapped and Travis had rushed in to help her. He could have easily picked her up and run off in speed mode though. That pissed Franklin off a little.

But what really pissed him off was that they really hadn't had a choice. It wasn't like they had gone out looking for a fight. They had wanted to avoid the bad guys, to not get involved with any sort of crime-fighting. But thanks to a very bizarre and unfortunate coincidence, they had done the opposite. It had been completely out of their hands, like fate itself had ordained that just because they had superpowers, they had to fight criminals. It sucked because he couldn't even regret his choice to fight since if he did, then he would be regretting saving his friends' lives.

And now he had to pay for something that wasn't even a mistake. His family too.

Franklin managed to evade Angie for the rest of the evening, helping his mother with the clearing up and any other chores he could manage around her. She'd tried to pull him away but he'd ignored her. Then he was able to lock himself in his room. As soon as he had, he sighed and just collapsed on his bed.

He felt like crying, screaming, and punching something all at the same time. But he couldn't really do any of that so he just stayed where he was, lying there.

What was he supposed to do next? What could he do next? After something like this, what did someone do next? Did they just go back to normal, pretend it never happened?

In the comic books and TV shows and movies they made it look so easy. That it was so cool to fight villains, so exciting. Only a handful showed how utterly terrifying it was and even those paled in comparison to the real thing. And most of them didn't really show what happened to the heroes after their first fights. Like, what did they do? How did they cope? Spider-Man had vowed to be a superhero from then on, so Franklin didn't really think that was comparable. He had no desire to be a superhero. For him, there had only been one real superhero around and now he was...

The tears came so quickly that it felt like they had just been waiting for a break. He didn't even try to fight them, just letting them flow out.

He'd almost died. He did have impervious skin and super strength but none of that had helped when facing those guys. None of that changed the fact that he still felt like at any second, he could die. How could anyone cope with this? Is this what his dad had felt like every day when he went to work?