And the Stars Answered

(Anti)Hero

I don't think becoming a superhero is supposed to happen like this.

Doesn't a radioactive spider find and bite you, thus granting you superpowers? Or maybe you fall into a vat of radioactive goo? And somewhere in the mix of that mess of dangerous misadventures, a wise old mentor gives you advice that you don't understand at the time, but do later after you fight a supervillain or something.

There is a theme going on here. Did you catch it?

Unfortunately, that is not what happened to me. I honestly wish I could tell you that I got bit by a radioactive shark or something, but my origin story is not that interesting.

I wish it was.

One morning, I woke up.

Oh, sorry, what was that? Are you waiting for something else?

Nope, that's it.

I swear that I'm telling you the truth. One morning, I woke up and discovered that I had crazy OP powers. It was yesterday morning, in fact. These abilities I have now...it's some next level shit, too.

You know the girl from that mutant superhero team? Remember the redhead that is crazy powerful and can move things with her mind?

That's what I can do now.

I know. Cool, right?

Still, I'm mildly disappointed that nothing radioactive bit me. (Seriously, what's up with that? I feel left out...) I decided to do another superhero-in-training cliché. I would go out and find a deserted area in the city to hone my skills. Maybe if I was lucky, I could even stop some robbers or something.

At least, that's what I thought I would do, which brings me to right now as I'm telling you this.

I'm not the only one.

If I hadn't broken my phone the night before, maybe I would have received the texts or saw a tweet-something to give me a heads up that the world got a whole lot weirder.

And that's taking into account the weirdness of waking up with superpowers.

There's a lot of not-so-great people out there, who now have the ability to fly or shoot lasers. I even saw a kid turn into a giant rock monster. These people are trashing the city. It reminds me of the Wild West-duels and standoffs, bandits and sheriffs.

The problem is that the people who used to have power, like the police and politicians, can't do anything to stop them. Maybe a handful of these people were granted powers like me and that rock monster, but not enough to stop the crimes.

It would take someone with powers to protect the city and set things right.

The wise old mentor would tell me it's my responsibility-I was given these powers for a reason, blah, blah, blah. But the thing is I don't have a mentor, and I don't feel like wading into a fight that I'm not ready for. I could get hurt or killed.

Then where would that get me?

No, I'll see how this plays out before making my presence known. Watch and wait-that's the plan for now.

That doesn't make me a good superhero, though.

Oh, well-better a living, breathing antihero than a died hero.