The Paladin: A Teenage Superhero Story

Chapter 5

Tuesday

November 23rd

I got up that morning more tired than normal. I went pretty hard the previous night trying to impress Samantha and was definitely feeling it. I went through my morning routine, same time as I always did, grabbed a breakfast bar and headed out. More than anything I wanted to head out to that storage facility and bust some heads. However, I knew that skipping school would just cause more problems, for the time being, the storage facility had to wait. I made my way to school a little bit earlier than normal that day, I couldn't be bothered with Tyler, Max, and Theo at the moment. Unfortunately, on my way to homeroom, I ran into Alicia who looked pretty cross with me.

"Where the hell were you, Booker? My dad said that you didn't show up yesterday, got all bitchy with me about you standing him up," she brought up. I sighed, realizing that I was going to have to face the music.

"Thank your dad for me Alicia, but I don't think it's a good idea," I made clear.

"He's going to be disappointed, he said he liked you, and he doesn't like many people," she mentioned. I gave her a skeptical look.

"Are you not mad at me for snapping at you yesterday?" I asked.

"Booker I know the difference between an asshole and someone who's just having a bad day," she pointed out.

"And I'm not an asshole in this situation?" I posed, not knowing where we stood.

"I don't know the whole story Booker, I'd imagine those guys have been up to this for a while now, but it's not my place to pry. Whatever it is, don't let them take away your passion, that's how they win," she insisted. With that, she headed off to her homeroom and I went to mine. She was right, I shouldn't give up my passion just because life got difficult, but sometimes it just wasn't worth it.

I pressed on through the day, and though it was tedious and boring I managed to get through it, avoiding Tyler, Max, and Theo all the while. I spent most of my classes formulating a plan for infiltrating the facility. Samantha, Johnny, and I had established we were going to strike immediately after school; we didn't know what the people were being used for so we had to assume time was a factor. So immediately following dismissal I headed out to the parking lot where Johnny and Samantha were already waiting in her truck.

"Little early aren't you? Thought you guys got out a half hour from now?" I pointed out, checking my watch.

"Brah, we're gonna break into a storage facility and dispense some vigilante justice, and you're questioning us cutting class?" Johnny replied. I shrugged, realizing he had a good point, then pulled myself into the car. The drive didn't take long, route nine ran just outside of Tar City and before we knew it we were across the street from Weiss Storage Facilities. Samantha had made sure to park about a mile away per my suggestion. I didn't want any guards or security cameras picking up the license plate number. The facility looked empty, and there was an eerie silence about the whole place that made me uneasy. The three of us scaled the fence, sneaking through the facility just in case there were any guards patrolling the area. After a few minutes of sneaking around, we came upon the largest of the warehouses which was closest to the entrance. The three of us stacked up around the corner then I slowly peeked around, realizing that the place was empty.

"Motherfucker!" I cursed kicking a nearby rock, the sole inhabitant of the warehouse.

"Hold on," Johnny said, noticing something in the warehouse. He had picked out a small piece of paper that was resting on the floor in the center of the warehouse. He meandered over and picked it up, scanning over it. "Says, we know," he read. I turned pale, realizing that they knew we were coming.