Hero

by Perry Moore

  Warrior Woman apparently didn't trust me to leave on my own. She waited by the door with her trigger finger on the light switch.

  She smiled as I walked out the door, and I thought she was going to say something kind.

  "Maybe you should spend more time learning how to use your powers instead."

  Everyone's a critic.

  * * *

  I walked down the corridor to the locker room to get my dirty clothes. Even Typhoid Larry said they smelled bad, so I knew it was time for a wash, probably time to keep more than one change of clothes in the locker, too. I held the old clothes to my nose. They smelled sour and stale.

  The laundry room and janitor's closet were on the top floor, near the exit to the observation deck. I thought I'd just drop the stuff in the wash before I left, and I could put it in the dryer when I came back the next morning. The hall was slick and clean, and I could hear my boots squeak. When I turned the corner, I saw a light coming from a crack in the door to the observation deck.

  I poked my head inside, and the hinges squeaked as the door crept open.

  "Come in," Justice said without turning around.

  He stood with his back to me, his hands clasped and resting on the small of his back. I could tell his chin was lifted, his face raised to the heavens. A giant plate glass window stretched out in front of him. I hadn't realized the headquarters was this vast. He stared out into space. A giant telescope, something you'd see in a planetarium, stood on the other side of the room, pristine and ready for someone to look through it. I wondered how far away he could see with X-ray vision and a telescope.

  "Go ahead and take a look if you want." His body didn't move when he spoke.

  I walked over to the telescope, my boots still squishing, and brushed a tiny cobweb away from the lens and looked through it. I probably let out a gasp. I'd never seen space like this before, not on any field trip, not in any sci-fi movie. I stoodthere for I don't know how long, but it must have been a while because the moon had moved across the sky when I finally took a step back.

  Justice remained perfectly still the entire time. Suddenly I felt like a big stone that had plopped down into a placid, calm lake, wrecking the smooth surface with a cannonball splash. I took a deep breath and almost gagged. I was still holding my dirty clothes.

  "Sorry about the clothes," I said. "They really stink."

  "You all smell to me."

  I blinked a few times, repeated his line in my head. Did he just say we all smelled to him? He could see what I was thinking.

  "I'm not from this universe. The whole planet smells different to me."

  Oh. Okay. It's true that he was from another planet.

  "You've been doing a good job, Thorn, even at the hospital. You're doing a lot better than you think." He turned to look at me and gave me a gentle smile.

  "Your mother would be very proud of you."

  Holy shit. I'd almost forgotten.

  "You knew my mother."

  "A very special woman," he continued, his eyes glued back on the stars. "She served on our stealth squad longer than any other member."

  That didn't make sense to me. At least the timing of it didn't. When did she serve? Was she still doing it after she got married? When I was born? Could she have hidden something like that from us? Did Dad know? And what about Dad, why didn't Justice talk about him?

  "Do you know—" I had to take a breath to get the whole question out. I wasn't used to asking questions about my mother. "Do you know where she is?"

  Justice sighed and rubbed his eyes. Maybe superbeings from other planets got eyestrain just like the rest of us.

  "I wish I knew, Thorn." His eyes drifted back toward the universe, and I knew there was something he wasn't telling me. "Do you want a drink?"

  "Warrior Woman told me I had to leave."

  Justice chuckled. "Warrior Woman's a bitch."

  I laughed.

  "Well, sometimes. I mean it in a good-hearted way; don't tell her I said that. Our secret." He winked at me, and I nodded.

  We sat on the ledge of the terrace, and he handed me a ginger ale.

  "Aren't you going to have anything?" I asked. I took a sip and felt the fizzy air tingle in my nostrils.

  "I don't need sustenance the same way you do, but if it makes you feel more comfortable ..." He suddenly had a drink in his hand. I hadn't even seen him get it. Superspeed takes a long time to get used to. I didn't know he had that power. I guess there was a lot I still didn't know about him.

  "You can go ahead and ask," he said, and looked at my probationary ring. "I can see the question in your mind." Justice took a sip of his drink and pretended to taste it.

  "Why don't you and my dad talk anymore?"

  Justice stared down into the bubbles of his drink as they rose to the surface and popped.

  "That's something you should ask him. I don't want to get between father and son. Family's theWost important thing, you have to respect that."

  I nodded and tried to hide my disappointment. Doing the right thing was always a lot easier when you weren't dying to know what really happened.

  "I'd give anything to have my family back," Justice said, a sudden confession. He looked up at the sky, and I saw a great sadness tugging at his eyelids. "My whole planet, everything I ever knew, everyone I ever loved, gone, just like that."

  We all knew the legend. How his parents had sent him out in a rocket ship the very last minute before the planet exploded, how he'd been found in a crater and taken in by a kind, elderly couple.

  "I can't look at the stars without thinking about my home planet." He drifted for a moment in an ocean of memory. "I couldn't get back to that part of the universe even if I wanted to. It would take a force so great ..." He lost himself in the thought, then cut a glance over to me.

  "Something else is bothering you." His focus came back to me, and then to my ring. "Want to talk about it?"

  I did. I wanted to talk about everything, to tell him all about growing up with this crazy crush on Uberman, about how much I wanted to count in the world, about how bad I wanted to make the League because it was the only thing that really meant anything to me, and about this tall, lean foreign guy I played basketball with every day and how it really bothered me to hear him say the word girlfriend, and I wanted to tell him that my dad really sucked because he was all closed up and walled off, and I could never have a conversation like this with him.

  I looked into his face and saw honesty. Justice really wanted to know, and believe it or not, that was good enough for me because it was the first time in a long time I felt like anyone genuinely cared about me.

  We sat and sipped our drinks and stared out at the stars and let the silence speak for us.

  The moon was even lower in the sky, and I felt much better now, maybe a little high from all the sugar in the ginger ale.

  "I guess I should get going," I said, and hopped off the ledge onto the terrace.

  Justice nodded and took my glass. I picked up my clothes, and he said, "Your father doesn't know about any of this, does he?"

  I stared down at the bundle of dirty clothes in my arms.

  "Don't worry." Justice patted me on the shoulder. "I won't tell him, that's up to you."

  Our secret.

  Dad was setting his alarm to go to sleep when I tiptoed upstairs. I could hear the ancient bleeps of his old digital clock radio, his ten-year anniversary gift from the factory.

  "That you, Thom?" he called from the other side of his door.

  "G'night, Dad." I kept on going to my room. I closed the door and stretched out on my bed and thought about Justice and our talk. I reached under the mattress and took out the old pictures of Mom.

  She smiled back at me in her slick, trim costume, a teen fashion model caught in a coy pose. You'd never know what was really lurking in her mind, behind the magazine smile held up to keep you out. Had she been a part of the League's secret espionage squad even then? Who would ever have suspected that a sweet girl fres
h out of teachers college was sneaking around behind your back? I guess it was a good cover.

  Then it hit me that there was only one way Mom could have made her cover better: have a kid. Who would suspect a mom? In between running carpools, cutting cookies, scheduling appointments, and returning library books, who'd find the time to be a world-class spy? Was I part of the perfect cover? And why would she leave the note and the pictures for me? Maybe she didn't disappear of her own free will. Maybe she wasn't even alive.

  I held the picture to my heart and let the air out of my chest. I couldn't think straight I was so tired, and my eyelids felt heavy. I lifted my head up and looked at the door. Ever so slightly, I heard the soft scraping of Dad's callused feet on the carpet outside in the hallway. He was good, but I was his son. I knew he was on the other side of the door, his hand raised in a fist, deciding whether to knock. I suddenly wondered if he knew I was listening, if he was waiting to see if I wanted to talk, too. I wondered if he knew how much I wanted to grab his melted hand and test my strength and show him what I'd learned to do, and pour all of my power out until his hand healed completely. But we remained on separate sides of the door in silence.

  This is how we played the game, neither of us saying a word. A few moments passed and I heard Dad scuffle back to his room and crawl into bed.

  * * *

  I kicked ass the next day at tryouts.

  Justice called all of the groups togethet and announced a competition, an old-fashioned field day with long jumps and egg tosses and hot dog eating contests. They ctanked up the S.T.A., and suddenly we were in the middle of a perfectly manicured field of spring greens and golds.

  No one was allowed to use powers, that was the only rule. The object of the game was to have fun, blow off a little steam, foster a little camaraderie.

  "Hope you don't screw this up too," Galaxy Girl said to me when we lined up for the fifty-yard dash. Trash talk from a girl with a ring orbiting around her face. Spectrum fired the start gun, and Galaxy Guy stuck out his foot and tried to trip me as I took off. No way was I going to lose to those twin assholes. I leaped over his foot and sprinted like I'd been doing every morning at the rec center with Goran, and when I crossed the finish line, I turned around and saw I was a full two lengths ahead of my nearest opponent, Mr. Mist.

  Ruth awarded Galaxy Guy and Girl their ribbons.

  "Hey, fourth and fifth place is better than no place at all." She draped the ribbons over their heads, careful to avoid the moons. Galaxy Girl's got hung up on the ring around her head. She yanked it off and tossed it on the ground.

  "We're still two hundred points ahead of you, you old bag."

  Ruth suddenly doubled over and dropped to the ground.

  "Ruth, what is it? Are you okay?!" I ran over to help her up.

  "I see . . . I see . . ." Ruth grabbed her temples in pain. "I see the future, and it's a League with no twins."

  "Very funny." The Galaxy Twins backed off and headed over to the refreshment table.

  Ruth called after them, "If you're really good, I'll let you know which soap star is going to host your Where Are They Now? special!" She scanned the grass around her feet. "Where's my flask?"

  Miss Scarlett and Golden Boy showed up for the wheelbarrow races.

  "Where have you two been?" Larry asked.

  Scarlett smeared cherry lip gloss on her lower lips with a hot-pink applicator. "I had to work late." She smacked her lips.

  I called a last-minute substitution during King of the Mountain and had Larry stand in for me. Powers or no powers, we won because nobody wanted to get near him. He sat on top of the hill and looked out at all of the heroes and rested his chin in his hand with an Is-that-all-there-is? look on his face.

  By the end of the afternoon we were neck and neck with the Galaxy Twins' team. The day's winner would get a bonus two hundred points, which would put us back squarely in the running with the other teams in the overall tryouts. All we had to do was win the last event.

  Warrior Woman marched onto the field with two large banners and announced that the final, deciding event would be Capture the Flag, another game I hadn't played since I was a kid. The Galaxy Twins walked by our team with their flag. Galaxy Girl accidentally-on-purpose hit Scarlett with the end of her flag as she passed. It caught Scarlett right below the ribs.

  "Oh, I'm sorry."

  Scarlett's eyes went white hot with anger.

  Galaxy Girl adjusted the buttons on her custom-designed Gucci costume, taking extra care to show off her trim, bare midriff. Scarlett eyed Galaxy Girl's tight, exposed stomach and wrapped her arms around her own waist. The twins reeked of privilege, expendable incomes, and inheritance—bags under their eyes from too much champagne too late at the clubs, never from a late shift or an early shift. They had a different high-end designer do a new costume for every new moon cycle. Word was they had their own reality series in the works.

  "Nice jacket. Do they make you wear it all the time, even when you're not delivering pizzas?"

  Scarlett tugged at the dirty, long sleeves of her jacket. It made me uncomfortable to watch Galaxy Girl strike a nerve, even in someone I didn't like very much. Scarlett's jacket was always wrapped around her like she had nothing else to wear, and it had the stains to prove it.

  Scarlett lunged at Galaxy Girl, but Golden Boy intercepted her at full speed before her nails could gouge the color contacts out of Galaxy Girl's eyes. Golden Boy yanked Scarlett by the waist over to our side for a huddle. The twins moved on.

  "Hey, Star Girl, I'm gonna take our flag when we win and shove it so far up your—!"

  "C'mon, people," Golden Boy cut her off. "All we need to do is find their flag, bring it to our base, and we're back in this thing. Let's do it!"

  We put our hands in the huddle with a go-team gesture. I looked down at Ruth's old withered fingers, Scarlett's bloodred nails, Golden Boy's tightly gloved fists, and Larry's hand, held safely away from the rest of ours. Go team.

  Scarlett was seething, and the words sprung out her mouth like flames shooting off her tongue. "Let's crucify them."

  We were down to the last five minutes of the game, and only four of us remained: me, Scarlett, and the Galaxy Twins. Ruth had been the second to go, but she didn't seem to mind much, because she sat on the sidelines and introduced Larry to her favorite cold remedy, a mixture of lemonade, a cough drop, and whatever was in her flask. Golden Boy had been a surprise victim of the Twins' subterfuge. He'd been sneaking around their territory, no superspeed at all, when Galaxy Girl accidentally-on-purpose created a miniconstellation to draw him out of the shadows, where her brother easily tagged him out. We tried to call a foul since she'd used her powers, but she lied and said it was just the reflection from the sun off her Fendi bag. Warrior Woman judged it fair play and had us continue.

  But then Scarlett just got plain reckless. She ventured into their territory without any sort of plan whatsoever, calling out, "All right, who wants some?" Then she sent out an energy blast from her hands and burned Galaxy Girl's Fendi bag to a crisp. In the process she left a red, stinging mark on Galaxy Girl's naked belly. Scarlett was tagged out in a second, but didn't seem to care.

  Meanwhile, I'd been busy sneaking around their turf, and I finally located their flag. Galaxy Guy was guarding it in a thicket by the river. He bent over the stream and hummed a tune and studied his reflection. He flashed a series of smiles and poses for himself. I tried to creep forward silently to grab the flag while he was preoccupied, but I stepped over a log and broke a twig in two with a loud snap.

  "Hey, sis, I was thinking about getting my teeth bleached again. Think I need it?" Galaxy Guy studied his smile in the reflection. "Sis?"

  He turned around, but I was already taking off with the flag. I ran as fast as I could. This was just another sprint, and even though I'd been giving it my best all day, I could still put on some extra pepper when we needed it most.

  Galaxy Guy was catching up to me, and I knew I had to kick into high gear
. I dodged a few of his teammates effortlessly, my basketball moves coming in handy. The crowd was cheering my name, and I saw all the League lined up out of the corners of my eyes as I raced toward our side. Galaxy Guy used just enough of his stellar overdrive to make up for lost time without tipping off that he was using his powers. In a few seconds he'd tag me out if I didn't do something.

  Then I looked forward and saw Uberman by the finish line, waiting with a dazzling smile on his face. I couldn't imagine anything better than winning the game in front of him and putting our team back in good standing. The cheers echoed in my ears, and it wasn't like the goofy cheerleader squeals of a basketball game. This was different, these were the heroes I'd grown up admiring my whole life, and they were cheering my name.

  But Galaxy Guy was right behind me, and I could feel him reaching over to my shoulder, inches away from snatching back his flag. The cheers grew louder, and I focused hard on Uberman's crystal blue eyes and his radiant smile, and made my legs kick me ahead faster and faster. And then I saw Galaxy Girl fly into space in front of me. It was a clear violation of the no-powers rule, but I knew that if I didn't get the flag over to my side, she'd find some reason to talk her way into victory, and I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let my team down. She swooped down, low enough to dive-tackle me. I mustered every last iota of energy in my thighs and jumped above her as high as I could, like I was in my third and final try at the long jump at the Olympics and this one was for the gold.

  I heard the crowd gasp and collectively hold their breath as my trajectory sent me high up in the air. I barely cleared Galaxy Girl, and I landed on the other side in a tumble and rolled over to the flagpole holder without spearing myself. Galaxy Girl ended up connecting headlong with her brother, who chipped his front tooth on her satellite when they collided. My forehead smacked the leather shin of Uberman's boot, and I looked up.

  "Hi, there." Uberman looked down at me and grinned. "Looks like you're the winner."

  I popped up on my feet and lifted the flag into the air. The crowd went wild, and it felt great. Even Scarlett and Golden Boy were whooping and hollering. Everyone in the world should have at least one moment in their lifetime when an entire crowd of people cheers them on for something, one moment to feel exceptional, one moment that lets you know you really do mean something in the universe.