3. Caught in the Middle
Julia is keen to know every detail of my power and the day in general, so I sit down and try to answer her continuous string of questions. By the end of our Q&A session I am left feeling embarrassed and slightly idiotic, and she is left feeling… wiser, I suppose. More intelligent? If that was possible.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” says Josh, his face beaming with excitement. Normally, when someone has an idea and is really excited to share it, it usually means that although they can be counted to find their own idea entertaining, flawless and clever, it doesn’t ultimately mean that it actually is.
“We could throw Tim off a building, to see if he can fly.” Julia commits a single act of facepalm, before deciding that burying her whole face in her palms is a more fitting alternative. I just groan. See what I told you? Entertaining, flawless and clever. For him.
“How about,” Julia suggests, “we come up with a way for testing what powers Tim has that doesn’t involve putting his life in danger.”
“How about,” I suggest back, “we don’t do anything that involves me and heights.”
“Dude,” Josh groans, “you’ve gotta overcome your fear of heights sometime.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I counter. “I would like to do that – but without dying in the process.”
“Oh, come on. What kind of supervillian is afraid of heights?” He asks.
I sigh. “Well, maybe…”
“Maybe what?” He asks.
“Nothing.” I sigh again. I was a stupid idea. Mostly suicidal. There was no point even mentioning it.
“Well,” Julia suggests, “maybe we could stop fighting and just let Tim’s powers evolve in their own time.”
“See,” I huff. “There’s a decent idea. Thank god there’s at least one person in this room with any form of brain matter…”
“Hey!” Josh looks offended and gives me a dirty look.
“Tim, I believe I also said ‘stop fighting’” Julia sighs, and mumbles something about males. She sighs again, before changing the topic. “So, Tim. I suppose, you’re gonna register as a supervillian, right?”
“Uh… probably.” I shrug.
“Well, as far as I see it.” Josh perks up again and holds two fingers in the air. “You’ve got two options. Option one: Become a supervillian. Option two: Be a wimp, and go back to living a normal life.”
I shrug again. “There’s always option three.” They both give me looks of shock and disbelief.
“You’re kidding.” Julia shakes her head. “There is no option three.”
“Sure.” Josh rolls his eyes. “Suicide is always an option.”
“Saving people isn’t suicidal.” I counter. But Josh is right. In a city like this one, it so is. I already regret even mentioning it. I should have just agreed to be a villain or shrugged and said I didn’t want to do anything with my power. But let’s face it. How boring is that? I’d probably end up coming to option three anyway.
Remember when I was telling you that there is no superheroes in our city, because of the mass number of villains? Well, occasionally once in a blue moon, some good hearted person will develop superpowers. Someone who is too good to be a villain, and too restless and brave (or stupid) to sit around and do nothing. So what do they do? They be a hero. They decide to try and save someone. It’s called taking option three, but it’s also known as being insane, suicidal or just plain idiotic.
Josh and Julia give me identical ‘are you an idiot?’ stares. Well, I suppose I am.
“Yes, it is.” Julia sighs.
“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” I groan. “I don’t want to be a villain. That doesn’t sound right, to me. And I don’t want to sit around doing nothing, either. How boring would that be?”
“It may be boring.” Josh sighs. “But that way, you won’t die a painfully slow and young death.”
“I suppose.” I groan and decide to put all further thoughts of my future aside. I’ll brood about them later, I suppose.
Josh pulls the console games from earlier, and he suggests we get down to business and sort this all out with a good round of gaming. Julia rolls her eyes and leaves the room, muttering something about some study assignment she has to do.
“I still think you should try and figure out what your other powers are, if you have any.” He says. I roll my eyes at him.
“You got any better ideas than pushing me off a building?”
“How about…” He scratches his chin while pawing around in his wardrobe for the power cable to his X-Box. “We push you in front of a car.”
“And what power, exactly does this test for?”
“I dunno, really. Most of them. See if you can heal fast, are super strong, have hardened skin...”
“Ability to die easy?” I suggest.
“That too.” He grins.
We muck around for a bit, before he brings it up again. “When you said, before, when you said you didn’t want to be a villain or sit around and do nothing. You wanted to be a hero… were you being serious?”
I nod. “I was, actually.”
“Idiot,” he mutters. I laugh.
887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dfr8PXF5t
-------------------------------
887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKCP7AUgNQ4
The next day is a Monday, which means school. Maths is first after Homeroom. We enter the classroom, and, surprise surprise, we have a substitute. She only looks about 25 and has nice curly brown hair that falls to her shoulders. Josh, being the total flirty jerk he is, has to wolf whistle upon laying eyes on her. She frowns at him.
“Ah, what is your name, mister?”
“It’s Joshua. But you, pretty, can just call me Josh.” I roll my eyes at him, and the substitute gives him a stern look.
“Last name?”
“Sexy.” He answers, with a wink. I groan.
“Well, then, Mr egotistical, seeing as you enjoy my company so much,” Josh grins at her. “You can sit right up the front here.” She pats a front desk and he groans, while I chuckle. We sit down and he groans again.
“Oh man, I wanted to sit at the back.”
“What?” I chuckle. “Next to the cheerleader girls?”
He grins like a maniac and I roll my eyes.
During the class, Josh keeps up his continuous flirtation with the teacher. By half an hour in, I’m really surprised she hasn’t sent him out yet. It’s only a matter of time really. And I’m right. He gets sent out 15 minutes before class ends for making one too many comments about her ass. Typical.
We meet up again at lunch, where he spends 10 minutes trying to convince me to come and sit with the cheerleaders. I finally convince him that it’s not the best idea, with the football players standing nearby, as I do every day. Josh is a good guy… but sometimes he takes the whole flirtation thing too far.
After school, we meet up at the car park to the local shopping mall. It’s another hot day and I’m trying really hard not to sweat like crazy. Josh is grinning like a madman, as per usual.
“What are we doing here again?” I ask. “And if we’re here to flirt with random woman, then I’m…”
“What, nah. I just wanted to…”
“Hang out with the cheerleaders?” I ask.
“Actually, that new video game is getting released today.”
“Oh.” I shrug. “Okay, cool!” We walk in. People of all ages are milling around everywhere, as usual. It’s a busy day, and it gets even busier as we head over to the video game store. The place is crowded with people, and at first I think it’s a whole bunch of nerds waiting for this release. But instead it’s just a random bunch of mall shoppers. They appear to be crowding around, watching something that’s going on inside the shop. “Come on dude, let’s get closer.” I suggest to Josh. He nods, and we push through the crowds of people. When we reach the centre it’s obvious what’s going on. It’s a robbery.
“Everybody get down!” yells a masked man. He’s floating in mid-air, which is a pretty obvious giveaway that he’s a super. A sub-machine gun materialises in his hands, further clearing any doubt about him not being a normal criminal. “I SAID, EVERYBODY GET DOWN!” He continues to yell. People grumble, before sighing and sitting down on the ground. Some civilian asks for popcorn, but he quickly shuts up when the super points his gun at him.
“Why are you people so rude?” The villain asks. “All I’m trying to do here is rob this video game shop. Some co-operation would be nice.” He sighs. “Right? Well, some cash would be nice.” He points his gun at the cashier, who rolls her eyes before opening the cash drawer. “What!” He yells. “This is ridiculous. There’s only about 200 dollars in here!”
“What did you expect?” yells a civilian. “If you want big bucks, you go rob a bank, idiot!”
“Hey!” The villain yells. “I’m just an amateur supervillian here, trying to make some quick cash! Why so harsh.”
“Oh...” I hear some people around me grumble. “He’s only an amateur, is he? Well, then, in that case…” Some start yawning and wander off, bored. This really frustrates the supervillian, and he reaches into the crowd and grabs a random person to use as a hostage.
As it turns out, the hostage is none other than Josh. The villain holds the gun to his head and Josh shoots me a look. It’s not the pleading look, like you would expect. Actually, it’s more of a ‘please don’t be an idiot and save me’ look.
“See this! I have a hostage, now! That’s right! Stuff just got interesting!” The villain yells at the crowd. I hear a few mumbles around me, stuff like “Oh, he has a hostage now, does he?”
“Hand over the cash!” The villain yells at the casher. “Or I’ll shoot!”
Suddenly, I realise that this is my chance to do something heroic. I start to step forward, and Josh gives me a look like: “No! You idiot!”
I step forward anyway.
I guess heroes have to start somewhere, right?
887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdT6FQaJB81
