Zoom, Academy for Superheroes: Part 3

Hall of Fame

        "You could go the distance, you could run the mile, you could walk straight through hell with a smile. You could be the hero, you could get the gold, 'cause there's gonna be a day when you're standing in the hall of fame, and the world's gonna know your name. 'Cause you burn with the brightest fame, and the world's gonna know your name, and you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame."
-The Script & Will. I. Am

*****

        The plane was quiet on that foggy, spring morning. Jack and Marsha were back in first class, and were one of the only few awake. They had begun a conversation about the kids and how much their powers had increased when they were interrupted by a phone call from Dr. Grant back at Area 52 that Jack waited impatiently for Marsha to finish.
        She seemed to be listening intently to whatever he was saying, Jack began to wonder if everything was alright back home. Finally, Marsha glanced at Jack and continued to speak to Grant. "Should I explain it or do you want to talk to him?" Jack raised an eyebrow, it was obvious they were talking about him.
        Grant must have responded in favour of the latter, because Marsha handed him her cell phone and within half a second, Grant was explaining something almost unfathomable to him. Apparently, Area 52 had been working on a certain project for almost fifteen years now, something that they were afraid they may need to turn to while Jack and Marsha were doing their undercover work.
        They had developed a very extravagant simulative serum that could actually let your mind wander into the future. The serum would render you unconscious, and then your thoughts and sights would be somehow transmitted to the future as a third-party. You wouldn't be living in the future, but you could see it, you could see your future self.
        So, naturally, Grant wondered if anyone on the team had any interest of testing out the serum. All the kids had said no, decided that it probably wasn't a good idea, as did Marsha. She believed in fate and destiny, and wouldn't want anything to be altered by unnaturally viewing the future. She had imagined that Jack would say no as well, but he almost seemed to be interested.
        But the scientists and researchers back at the labs of Area 52 also knew that the future may not always be pretty, and there could be some regrets for whoever decided to use the simulation. So they developed yet another serum, one that could make you lose all memories of what you'd seen, and everything would be as if it had never even happened. This is the part that they were afraid Jack and Marsha may need while they were in Summerland.
        Nobody really had all that much faith that they wouldn't completely screw up any plan they'd had. And if things got really bad, if they spilled too much information about Area 52, if things got out of hand, Area 52 would have sent them a bit of the serum which they could have used on Ben to make him forget what he had learned.
        When Grant's spiel was over and Jack had expressed his interest in the subject, they agreed to talk more about it when he got home. Jack ended the call and handed the phone back to Marsha, who appeared shocked. "What?" He asked, but he knew exactly what she was taken aback by.
        "You're really going to do it?"
        Jack shifted in his seat so that he could face her easier, "It sounds cool. I mean, don't you think it would be nice to see what's going to happen, to have a bit of a guarantee about some things?"
        "Well, those things are going to happen whether or not you know about them, you'll always have a guarantee!"
        "Come on, you know what I mean. What's the worst that could happen?"
        Marsha gave him a look, wondering if he was serious or not. "What do you mean 'What's the worst that could happen?' You could see something you don't like, you could see something you shouldn't have, and then when you come back to present time, you could change things that shouldn't be changed!"
        "Oh, please, if I see something I don't like I'll either do something to stop it from happening, or I'll just use that stuff they have to forget about it!"
        "That's exactly what I'm saying! I'm telling you, this isn't a good idea, the future is the future, it's going to happen whether we can see it or not."
        "Yeah," Jack responded, as if it was the simplest thing in the world, "so why not see it?"
        This wasn't like him, he wasn't usually this open-minded about government experiments. And Marsha was more than skeptical, she had a feeling this was not a good idea, the future wasn't something to be tampered with. And people shouldn't be able to see and know the future, that's kind of the whole point.
        "Okay, well, if you really go through with this - "
        "I am going through with it." Jack interrupted.
        "If you go through with it, don't tell me what you see, because I don't want any part of it."
        Neither of them could tell if they were having a real argument or not. Their voices and thoughts were tense, but the atmosphere was light and casual. The two of them seemed to be past their bickering and arguing over the simplest thing faze, much to the pleasure of everyone around them. They had moved on to constant teasing and silly arguments that weren't actually serious.
        "What if I drop you some hints, you'd never know."
        "Jack, I'm serious, I don't want to know!"
        "I just don't get that; if you're given the opportunity to see what's going to happen to you in the future, wouldn't you want to take that and prepare for it?"
        Marsha sighed before responding, "If you see the future and know what's going to happen, then that's all you'll be thinking about, and your decisions could be different from what they originally would have been in order to create that particular future. So, what you see, may not even be what really happens because you are trying to prepare."
        "Okay, you lost me."