24. Not the Only Hero in Town767Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpNX4zQRx4e
I leap over the armrest of our sofa and land next to Amy, who groans at my arrival.
"Hey, sis," I say, trying not to sound panicked, or rushed, or anything other than normal. "Are we watching the news?" I ask, probably speaking a bit too fast. She snorts at me, before turning her head back to the TV. I figure that instead of asking her, I should just check for myself, although I could have guessed by the auto-tune singing and recycled pop beats. Urgggh, another boyband. "Amy, can you, uh, change it to something else? Like the news. I think mum wants to watch the news."
Amy gives me a weird look, probably because I just suggested we watched the news, which I will admit isn't something I normally would do. Normally I stick to channels that play comedy or HBO shows, or just didn't use the TV at all, preferring to stream things off the web.
"Come on, it's six thirty." She ignores me and continues to watch another music video, leaning back on the sofa and not taking any of my request into consideration. I reach over and try to grab the remote off her, but she has it firmly grasped in her hand, wiggling it out of my reach. Oh man, if I had my powers right now...
"Mum," Amy calls, "Tim is trying to take the remote off me!"
"Hey, I wanna watch the news!" I try and grab for it again, but she has moved to sitting on the top of the sofa, holding the remote far above my head.
"Tim, Amy, stop fighting!" Mum responds, from the kitchen. "But Amy, since you have the remote, you can change it over to the news."
"Oh what!" Amy moans, before flinging the remote at me. I carefully catch it before it hits me in my tender nose. "That isn't fair."
"You have been watching that band for the past hour and now Tim and I want to watch the news."
"AH! Stupid mortals!" cries Amy, before huffing at us and running off to her room. I whoop in victory and punch a few numbers into the remote, changing it to over to a news channel. Now to hope whatever Julia told Josh to tell me to watch isn't bad... oh, who am I kidding. They wouldn't have told me to watch it if it wasn't.
The first thing I see is a live reporter talking to witnesses outside what appears to be a computer store. Broken windows and water all over the pavement around her is a sure indicator that whatever has happened was probably a supervillain related fight. A flashing headline on the top of the screen catches my eye and I give it a one over. 'SUPERHERO CRAZE CONTINUES'
Suddenly, I'm confused. What do they mean, 'Superhero Craze Continues'? I haven't done anything remotely superhero-like, after I beat-up the Captain in the mall on Saturday. And that was only because he attacked me first, not because he was robbing anything. Ever since then, I've been on my mum's crazy house-arrest and I've even temporary lost my powers, too. So unless they are playing replays from the weekend-
"It isn't about you," Mum finishes, aloud. I roll my eyes. My train of thought was coming to that conclusion. Given a few more seconds... I sigh and turn back to the news.
"-now," continues the reporter, "I will speak to a man who was live on the scene earlier, here watching the drama unfold." I look at their witness and snort, realising it is the same guy that was interviewed after my first fight with Captain Catastrophe. Same bulky middle aged man, same lip smothering moustache. He is wearing a different shirt, but that is about it. "Sir, tell us what happened."
"Well, so this supervillain, Icesmasher or something-"
"Icebreaker," corrects the reporter, as she smiles unnaturally at him and the camera.
"Well yeah, him, he was robbing this computer place, but then, outta nowhere man," he spreads out his hands in front of the camera, "this superhero girl appeared and kicked his ass. She was amazing, man. Nicebreaker-"
"Icebreaker."
"He couldn't even land a hit on her, but she got heaps on him. So much better than that idiot from last week."
I blush in embarrassment. They throw up a shakily taken camera shot on the side, I assume it was from during the battle, a phone shot taken from the heat of the action. It's blurry, but I can make out the superhero girl they are talking about, dressed in all white and grey, without a cape and a full head mask, which makes it semi-impossible to make out any features of her face. I couldn't see her hair colour, let alone her eye colour. I really need one of those masks. They throw up a few more phone pictures, from different angles and I realise she is actually kinda hot looking. Too bad I can't see anything but white mask, though.
So this is what Julia wanted me and Josh to see – someone else who is brave enough to stand up the city's supervillains, or at least stupid enough. She doesn't look stupid, though. Actually, it makes me feel a lot better about myself – well except for the parts where they compare her and I and call her the better hero. Just because she can control her powers better. She has probably been training for ages or something.
"Interesting," Mum muses, from beside me. "Some girl is trying to show you up."
"Yeah," I mumble, my eyes still fixed on the screen. "She is hot, though." Mum moans, and rolls her eyes. I grin. "It's true."
She gives me a 'really' look and I grin. "Yep, I, Tim, will admit my feelings. I am in love." She snorts.
"So are you gonna name this superhero," the reporter asks, handing the mic back to lip-eating moustache guy.
"Name? Well, she was kinda like a ghost, with her invisibility powers and stuff." Invisibility? I raise an eyebrow. "Ghostanna." I cringe for whoever this girl is, knowing that probably isn't the best of names. Imagine if my name was like that. Electric-Shockinator or something. Suddenly, I find myself liking the name he gave me a whole lot more. Lightning Strike. At least it doesn't have an 'anna' or an 'inator' on the end.
A timer rings from the kitchen and my mum gets up off the couch, smiling at me. "Dinner!"767Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv19Rao95WX
767Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGgThMsvto
After dinner, mum gives me a spare light bulb from the cupboard downstairs and has me trying to light it up, see if my power has returned, or has at least started to. However, I'm too busying thinking about this 'Ghostanna' girl to really concentrate. I know, I've only seen like 3 pictures of her, but I think I really like her. Some part of my head is telling me that maybe I should be intimidated or wary of her, because she is in a way, taking the limelight from me. I mean, I'm meant to be the one saving the city, not her. But it wasn't like I had any chance on my own. Or did I?
I wonder what she thinks of me. She probably snorted at the news reports like everybody else and thought I was an idiot who couldn't control his powers or something. I cringe at the likely thought and the light glows a little in my hands and I grin, it quickly dimming as I put my eyes on it. Well, it's a start.
I hear a beep on my phone and gingerly pick it up, remembering to hold my electricity back from my fingers, just in time. I was getting used to not having to worry, too. But now I can feel it ebbing and flowing through my fingers once more, a reminder that I have to be careful again.
I look at the screen, expecting a reply from Josh. He and I have been discussing 'Ghostanna'. Josh doesn't quite agree with my opinion that she is hot looking, surprisingly, as he claims that he needs a 'closer look' to fully determine her 'babe status'. Unsurprisingly, he texted a winking face ( ';)' ) after that message, which I snorted and laughed at.
The text isn't from Josh. It's another 'threatening' message, from the same unknown number. Man, when I decided I was gonna try be a hero, I didn't realise that it would make me the target for text bullying. Not that it's really bullying, because all their attempts are more hilarious than anything.
'm or not, you are dead'
I quickly tap back a reply. 'Are you sure you don't have the wrong number?'
They quickly reply and I give up on my light-bulb exercise, as I certainly don't have to try to get power flowing through my fingers anymore. My powers came back surprisingly fast, actually. It was only like, a day? At least I know not to ground myself again. I check their reply. 'of course i don't, fool'
'That's fine. Don't let me interrupt you from your threatening then.' I lay back on my bed and sigh. Just another day in the life of Tim the Awesome. Now, if only Mum would let me leave the house...
I know all my powers have truly returned in the morning, when I wake up to see the ceiling gone and replaced with sky.
"Hello, sun," I say, pushing myself out of bed. Or rather, float out of bed. "Hmmm," I mutter, from mid-air. "See, normally I have to concentrat-" I fall to the floor and hit my nose on my bedpost on the way down, causing my nose to bleed again. "Ow, ow." I pick myself off the floor and walk to the bathroom, finding some toilet paper for my nose. Mum rolls her eyes at me as I get ready for school and eat breakfast, passing me some bandages for the bleeding.
Josh snorts at me as arrive at school. "Don't tell me you broke your nose again."
"I don't think so," I say as I self-consciously finger the bandages, "but I did get my powers back," I add, offering him my hand. He laughs at me, knowing I plan to shock him.
"I'm going downtown today after school." I nod as he speaks. "Wanna come?"
"Well, I'm still grounded." I frown and he looks disappointed.
"Just come," Josh rolls his eyes. "We can go to the cinema or something. It will be fun."
I wonder how mad Mum will be if I go downtown with Josh, against her wishes. Well, her main issue is that she is afraid I will get hurt, I think. Beaten up by some supervillain. Maybe she thinks I will walk in front of a bus by accident. I doubt she finds me that stupid, but I could be surprised. Whatever, I'm over this stupid house arrest. I can handle myself.
"Sure, okay." I grin at Josh and he grins back. "Let's do this."
