Super

5 - It's A Watch, Not A Time Bomb

"She had blue skin,

And so did he.

He kept it hid

And so did she.

They searched for blue

Their whole life through,

Then passed right by-

And never knew."

― Shel Silverstein

A week passed quickly. October chills turned into biting November cold and students at Rock Wood High School began to resemble zombies as they shuffled around in thick coats and scarves as they started the preparation for December exams. Leaves drifted slowly to the ground as the wind picked up. Time seemed to slow down during the day and speed up as exams loomed closer and closer.

By the time another week passed and Terry had gone back undercover – despite the government's promise to let him vacation until January – there was no sign of the Invisible Hand. Sure, there was the odd crime here and there like cut brakes, but mostly it was just people looking for someone to blame. Their fear pointed all fingers to him, but he hadn't shown up to my room again and I was beginning to wonder whether he knew I had breached his trust.

As November was flying quickly by, the bigger crime rates spiked exponentially and with less supers on watch, Lila and my five new friends were forced to approach me with an old proposition. Brady had disappeared the week before so the plan to capture and question him went down the drain. Right as we had begun to lose hope, though, fate, it seemed, was smiling down on us. The Invisible Hand had been spotted in Manhattan.

✩✩✩

"We need to talk," the Claw said one evening. She, the five other supers, and I were huddled in the living room. Dad was working late as usual and mom was out buying dinner. Lila had recently teamed up with the supers, afraid that if she didn't, something might happen to her too. Luckily, Ardie, aka Lodestone, remained the only one who knew her secret identity.

"Okay," I said cautiously, "so talk."

She took a deep breath, watching me carefully to gauge my reaction as she began to speak. "I felt like I should be the one to tell you this: the original plan has been open to debate."

"The plan where I'm bait?" I asked. Everyone nodded. "Okay, so when do we start?"

Everyone blinked back at me, probably more than a little surprised that I had so readily agreed to this. Unfazed, the Claw plowed on.

"Well we were thinking, instead of staging something like a mugging, we could stick you in the middle of a busy road and pray for the best." She said it only slightly sarcastically.

"WHAT?" I flipped, my eyes bugging out of my head. This was a little more than I'd bargained for. "No way, not happening. I don't care if one of you comes up to attack me because I trust you. What I don't trust is New York drivers. They drive like maniacs and I'm bound to die! He might not even show up!"

"Relax," Lila laughed, fiddling with the ends of her chestnut hair. "We're going to get a roadblock up a few streets away. There'll be a traffic diversion so the only cars that'll get anywhere near you will have us behind the wheel."

"Okay," I breathed a sigh of relief, "that, I can handle."

"Are you sure?" Gold leant forward slightly, "you can still say no, Annie. We won't judge. We can make a new plan."