Seventeen year old Jay Sasaki lives in a world where corporations spend millions of dollars to exploit superpowered children and the media defines good and evil. Cursed with the ability to steal souls, Jay leads a double life as both a normal high s...
I stayed up until nearly midnight working on those muffins, beating together eggs, sugar, and butter until I had created a delicious, creamy batter. It was a great way to distract myself from my aching shoulder and what had happened with Captain Fedora, and it worked for a while. As I mixed in the vanilla, baking powder, and salt and sang along to an Arctic Monkeys song that had just started playing on my Spotify account, I pretended as if I was just a normal person like my dad or the other kids at school. The closest that I would ever come to having superpowers was watching superheroes on the news or reading about them in comic books.
When I mixed in the blueberries, however, I realized that I couldn't ignore my own powers. They were a part of me that I could never remove, no matter how hard I tried. I thought of my battle with Captain Fedora again. He had threatened to send me back to the Academy, a thought that sent shivers down my spine. I would have to be more careful about using my powers in the future if I wanted to avoid that fate. Perhaps if I was more cautious, I could evade another superhero encounter next time I needed to use my powers.
I placed the muffins into the oven, but by the time they were all finished, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I turned off the oven and dragged myself into bed. If I was lucky, I could make it through the next day without this sort of chaos happening to me again.
I barely got any sleep that night. When my alarm started blaring at six o'clock, I couldn't believe that the night had been that short. I yawned, rubbed my eyes, and climbed out of bed. As I had predicted, my shoulder was feeling a little bit better, although it still hurt a little bit. I headed out to the kitchen, where Dad was drinking a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper. I leaned over to read the headline: CAPTAIN FEDORA VANQUISHES THE DASTARDLY DEMON.
"Can I see that?" I asked as I took a bite of one of the muffins that I had baked the night before. The muffins had turned out quite well, and I was sure that my classmates would like them.
"Once I'm done," Dad said as he continued to read. I grumbled in frustration and continued to eat. A few minutes later, Dad passed me the copy of the San Urbano Times, and I read the article on the front page.
CAPTAIN FEDORA VANQUISHES THE DASTARDLY DEMON
By Declan McAllister
It seems that the Dastardly Demon may be gone for good after a battle with Captain Fedora last night. Sandra Wilkins, a longtime resident of San Urbano, called the police at around 8:30 PM last night, reporting strange noises coming from an abandoned mansion near her home. The police immediately notified the Academy for the Research and Education of Superpowered Individuals in San Urbano, who promptly sent Captain Fedora to investigate the situation. Upon arrival, Captain Fedora found that the Dastardly Demon was using the mansion to raise a ghost army, and he knew that he had to act.
