Sudden Superhero

18. Determination and Friendship and Love, and I Will Smile and I Will be Okay

FEAR IS A weird thing. There are simple fears, like spiders and heights, and then there are the serious fears, like becoming lonely or losing your mind. And dying, that's a big one. Dying was a fear I'd never given much thought to, but it was something that was always there. It's in everyone's hearts, in everyone's heads, and some people feel it every once in a while and some people feel it every single day.

I had almost died today, but I was alive because there had been a superhero, one who had put away his mask and left his savior days behind, one who had chosen to come back out just so he could help me. That was what a true hero was.

I had gone home to change, and after carefully putting away my costume underneath my bed, I shrugged on my backpack and headed for Henderson Tech. Everything had gone to hell. I had several missed calls from the principal, from Ben, and from Mom, who had clearly been alerted that her son had left school. The remote man and his contraption had gotten away, and his illegal weapons sales were still happening. My costume was messed up but functional enough.

Even with all of that pressure, there was adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was feeling a sort of resolve I'd never experienced before, a certain determination that made one thing clear: Red Soldier was going to finish this. I was going to finish this.

I walked up to the receptionist's desk, and without Kavanagh or Jenny with me, the lady clearly thought I was a schoolboy. She looked down at her watch, well aware that school had not yet let out, and she asked me what I was doing here.

"Ms. Henderson wants to see me," I said, a little more harshly than I'd intended. She had been the one to call me, and although it wouldn't surprise me if I met with one of her employees instead, I had some things to say to her and to her only. I was going to see her, even if I had to sneak up to her office to do so.

"Are you Peter Maguire?" the lady asked after typing something into her computer.

I nodded.

She handed me a visitor's pass and directed me to the elevator. I pressed the button for the top floor and turned around to face the floor-to-ceiling window that was on the back of the elevator. I watched as the ground got further away from me as I arrived at the top of the building, and before the doors slid open, I raised my head and took a deep breath.

Ms. Henderson was actually in her office, standing rigidly by the window, and when I entered and the doors closed behind me, she turned around slowly. I couldn't read the expression on her face. Was it anger? Disappointment? Guilt?

"He has superpowers," I said quietly.

She froze. "Is that so."

"Did you know?"

She shook her head. "I'm only finding out now."

"And now that you know, can you explain how he got them?"

She sat down slowly, eyes fixated on something I couldn't see.

"You told me the super serum was one of a kind, that I was the only one who had it, and since all your research burned down, I was the only one who would ever have it."

She was silent.

"That man on the Meyer building had the same abilities as me. Everything felt...familiar. I tried to convince myself that he got them some other way...but he's the same guy who stole your tech." I looked her right in the eye. "Wouldn't it make perfect sense that he stole a serum, too?"

More silence.

"Ms. Henderson, tell me the truth."

"There were two serums," she said finally. "The first was a prototype. It was taken during the first robbery by the lead man and his people, and I can only guess that he saw the notes as to what it was and decided to inject himself. The second serum was advanced, more powerful. That one got stolen only a day later, during the second robbery, and our lab was burned down to cover tracks. The man who threw it at you didn't know what it was. He only meant to incapacitate you so you wouldn't be able to call the cops."