Supers Wear Spandex *third book to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 4 - High hopes for reality

"Then I was like... No, it wasn't like, I was in an institution. There were, um, doctors, and nurses and other patients, they told me that I was sick... I guess crazy. And that, um, Sunnydale and all of this, none of it was real."

~ Buffy Summers (Vampire Slayer)

No matter how hard he tried, Xander couldn't get himself to move fast again. He even attempted to stage another event like when the books fell originally, but it did nothing.

Xander deduced that his powers were only able to break through whatever was going on because Xander wasn't thinking about using them, he was just trying to save some people from being hurt.

The one thing it did confirm though was that Xander was not crazy. The fact that John and the other patient weren't pummeled by falling books was proof to his powers having showed up. Add to it the fact that if he really was crazy, his powers had only showed before when he believed himself in his alternate universe, not in the hospital.

This had to mean Xander's delusion was actually the real world. Superheroes were real and he wasn't crazy.

Xander didn't kill Paul Rossi, at least not directly.

Xander was a real life superhero

Mera was actually dead.

The knowledge that Xander's world was the real world meant that Mera Deauxma was not alive and well. It meant that the girl he loved was dead.

Would it really be that bad to stay in crazy town just to keep her memory alive? Sure, here she thought he was just another loopy patient who had an insane crush on her, but at least here she didn't die in his arms. Here it was just like how it used to be at school, the unattainable woman who didn't know the power she held over him.

But, he had to get back. Who knew what was going on back home, how much time had passed. His mother was still in a coma and X was at large. Not to mention there was the shadow girl who put him in this world. He had to warn his friends.

The question was how to get back home. It would help if Xander knew exactly how he had gotten in this world in the first place.

John hadn't spoken since Xander saved him, which seemed to be the normal behavior of Crazy John. Crazy Taylor on the other hand didn't seem able to leave Xander alone. It was like the counterparts of the people he knew from the real world were opposites from their real selves or they were exaggerations. Whatever the shadow girl had done, she knew the people in his life well enough to twist them to fit this imaginary world.

While Xander tried to think of a way out and back to the real world, he took the habit of watching the other patients. It was through this habit that he noticed that though this world may be fake, there were real problems that needed fixing. People who needed a hero.

"April, how's it going?" A guy Xander had figured out to be named Brandon came and sat next to April on the couch. She didn't stop staring off blankly into space.

Then the other guy who Xander saved with his powers the other day sat on the other side of April and frowned at Brandon, "Hey, you know she's mine, right?"

Brandon narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me, who's the one who got her extra cake during Ms. Deauxma's birthday party? That's right, not you."

"That's because I was busy making sure her seat was comfortable."

As the two bickered over her, it clicked. What was April Watson famous for in the real world?

"You're nothing but a mean guy, Anakin," Brandon argued.