True Sidekick - *Sequel to Hero by Day

Chapter 12 - Friendly neighborhood super

"'We can talk about you giving your enemies silly codenames later'

'You mean like over coffee with Deathstroke and the Huntress?'"

~ Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Barry Allen (The Flash)

:Oliver:

My mom was ecstatic when I told her my girlfriend invited us over to her house for Thanksgiving. She hadn't met Elise yet, and it would also be a great way to introduce her parents as well.

The only problem was that mom wanted to bring Chad Hunter, my boss.

When Chad took over the Comic Book Shop, I was not excited. I was still depressed from Daniel's passing, and I was not ready for someone to take his place. Daniel had been a father figure – more than just a boss. No one would ever be able to replace him.

And then they started dating. My mom and 'Mr. Hunter' were officially in a relationship. They told me a couple days after I enlisted Aden as my sidekick, so I'd known for a while now.

In my opinion, they were moving quickly. They'd already gone on multiple dates and Chad had been to my house for dinner already three times. Mom went to his as well, but I was always 'too busy' to attend. I had no intention on spending more time with my mother's boyfriend who really hated me, both as a super and not.

(It's really bad for your self-esteem, you know)

So, it also felt kind of weird that they were going to my girlfriend's house for Thanksgiving together as well. I mean – maybe if they'd been dating for a couple months, but for one? It felt strange.

I knew it would always feel strange. My mom had to move on from my dad eventually. I felt selfish for hoping she never would. I wasn't ready for her to love someone else besides my dad. They had been perfect, and they had been meant for each other. I couldn't imagine her with anyone else besides him.

My dad died when I was young. He was a night security guard at a building residing in the bad part of town. One night he let me come with him. Coincidentally that was the same night the building got robbed. He told me to run outside to be safe, and I did. I had heard shots, but kept running. Outside I found the robbers' truck. I had thought that maybe I could do something to stop the robbers, so I hid behind a light post to watch them.

And that was when a bolt of lightning from the raging thunderstorm hit the pole and electrocuted me.

I awoke in the hospital some time later with the news that I was miraculously alive and that my father had been shot by the robbers and died on the scene.

I developed my powers only a couple of weeks later. That was when Daniel first started to train me to be his sidekick, even though I didn't officially help him on saves until I entered High School.

There was always a sense of dread that came along when I used my powers, though it was less now than it used to be. I had gotten them at the expense of my father's life. It was a burden I always held, no matter what. My powers weren't cheap. All good things come with a cost, right?

And even besides the fact that I probably wouldn't have liked anyone my mom started dating after dad, I still felt like there was something off about Chad.

Chad wasn't too kind about the supers, and I was starting to think that was where my mom was getting all her ideas from as well. Chad would always talk about how we were fine without the supers years ago, before the supers showed up. He didn't understand why the government didn't try and round them all up and experiment on them, or at least keep all the supers locked up away from society.