Searching for Super

by Marion Jensen

  We walked out onto the street and headed toward the bus stop. All the while, I chewed over the information we’d found. Or rather, hadn’t found. Jones was such a common name. There was all kinds of information about Joneses, but how could you tell who was a regular citizen and who was a supervillain?

  I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t even notice when Benny disappeared. One minute he was walking next to me, the next, he was gone. My heart froze and I spun around, ready to chase, tackle, or fight.

  Benny was standing on the sidewalk, his face toward the sky.

  “Benny,” I said, a little angry that he’d scared me. “What’re you doing?”

  My brother pointed at the skyscraper he was looking up at. “It’s the Baylor,” he said. “The tallest hotel in the city. Sometimes I like to look at all the windows and imagine the people behind them. People visiting from out of town. On business trips. Maybe some of them are looking down at us, and we look like ants.”

  Benny waved up at the hotel.

  I sighed. “That’s great, but we really need to get home.”

  A scream from behind made me spin on my heels. It took only a split second to see what was happening.

  Across the street, a man wearing a ski mask raced down the sidewalk. An older woman chased after him, waving her hands and yelling.

  “My purse! He stole my purse!” The woman wore heels and would never be able to catch him.

  There wasn’t a police officer in sight. A few people stood shocked on the sidewalk, but nobody made a move to stop the mugger. I saw why. He was carrying a knife. It looked like he’d used it to cut the strap on the purse, and now he was waving the weapon in front of him.

  I didn’t have a supersuit. I didn’t have a power. But I couldn’t just stand there. Benny stepped up to stand by my side.

  “That guy looks like he needs a good conk.”

  I nodded. We couldn’t stop him as superheroes, but we could stop him as regular citizens. We sprang off the sidewalk and into the street.

  Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye—an older boy standing by a van that said ROYLANCE’S TACOS on the side. The boy had angled himself so the mugger couldn’t see him.

  The boy looked familiar, and he motioned me back with one hand. I grabbed Benny by the arm.

  “Look.” I pointed at the Roylance’s Tacos van. “Who’s that?”

  “I don’t know,” Benny said. “But the bad guy’s getting away.”

  The mugger almost ran right past the van, but the boy stepped out at the last second and tripped him. A second figure leaped out of the van—a girl, about the same age as the boy. She kicked the knife out of the mugger’s hand, and it went flying. The boy jumped on top of the man and pinned his arms to his sides, and just like that, the fight was over.

  The two of them had stopped a mugging.

  The girl pulled out her cell phone to call the police. The boy held the mugger against the pavement, and he looked over at Benny and me. I could see the smile from across the street. He nodded like we were old friends at school, and then . . . then he turned his head, spat, and grinned.

  I grinned, too. I raised my hand in a fist and shook it.

  “It looks like a few other people are tired of hunkering down,” I said. “We’re all finding ways to fight back. I bet Roylance’s Taco van is some kind of mobile undercover vehicle the Johnsons have.”

  Benny nodded. “I got to get me one of those.”

  Back home, I wadded up a piece of scratch paper and threw it at the garbage. Something about the act of balling up the paper made me feel good. Like I was crushing the Joneses’ plans. I tried not to think about the truth—that the only thing I’d been able to do on my superhero checklist was visit a retirement home.

  I threw another wad of paper with enough force to bounce against the wall and land on Benny’s bed.

  “Hey,” Benny said, kicking the paper to the floor. He looked back to his phone.

  “Haven’t you gotten bored of that goat game yet?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Benny sounded guilty. “It’s actually very boring, but I can’t stop. My farm has almost five hundred goats and three hundred acres. If I stop feeding and watering the goats, they’ll all die.”

  I balled up another paper and was about to throw it at Benny when my phone buzzed.

  I glanced at the screen. A message from Juanita.

  Check your email. I’m sorry.

  I went to my desk and pulled up my email.

  Rafter,

  I’m sorry. You’re right. You have been helping me out the past few months, and it was selfish of me not to help you. I am your friend, and friends are there for each other. No matter what. I’ve attached everything I can find on the Joneses. It’s not much, but maybe it’s a place to get started.

  I heard about your other relatives. We had a family go missing this morning too. Six Johnsons, all gone. Grandmother called everybody in to headquarters and won’t let me leave. I’ll contact you again as soon as I can.

  Your friend,

  Juanita

  The note made me sad, and it took me a moment to realize why.

  Friends are there for each other. No matter what.

  I didn’t understand why Juanita wanted to help out at the food pantry and the senior center. But she did. If I was a real friend, I would have been there for her. Instead, I’d told her she wasn’t doing things that were important.

  And now she’d apologized to me.

  The next time I saw her, I would make this right. I promised myself.

  Opening the attachment, I saw a seventeen-page document. It had articles, pictures, and links to a few websites. None of this information had come up in my searches.

  I hit the print button and then had to go all the way down to the root cellar to get the pages. I took them up to Thimon’s room and knocked on his door.

  “Come in,” Thimon called from inside.

  I entered the room. Thimon had his laptop open on his desk.

  “How is it going?” I asked. “Have you found anything?”

  Thimon shook his head. “Nope. I’ve hit a dead end. I have no idea where to go from here. What about you guys? Any luck?”

  “Benny and I struck out at the library,” I said. “However, Juanita may have found something. I haven’t had a chance to look at it closely yet.”

  I handed the papers to Thimon, who cleared a place on his desk and spread them out. He glanced through them, frowned, and then started reading them again.

  I sat on the bed. Thimon continued to read, rubbing his forehead every once in a while. After a few minutes, he started mumbling to himself.

  “How did she . . . I didn’t even think . . . that clever girl.”

  Thimon finally looked up. “Well, this is more than I thought was possible. I mean, it’s not a road map to where the Joneses are hiding, but it’s a definite start. She’s found a shell company that looks like it may lead to the Jones family right here in Split Rock. I didn’t even know this kind of information was public.”

  “Shell company?” I asked.

  Thimon nodded. “Yeah. A fake company that is set up to hide illegal activity. Somehow she managed to dig it up.” Thimon stood up and walked to the window, looking out. After a moment, he turned around.

  “Can you give me a minute? I’m going to call Uncle John and see what he thinks about all of this.”

  “Oh, sure.” I went back to my room.

  Benny was playing on his phone. “I’m thinking I need to take up taxidermy,” Benny said. “That’s a skill that will take you far in life.”

  “Taxidermy?” I asked. “You mean like with bears and deer and stuff?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to hurt animals,” Benny said. “I was thinking more like a vegetarian taxidermist. You know. Celery, jicama. Things like that.”

  Thimon came in and closed the door behind him. He looked excited.

  “Uncle John thinks your friend has discovered something,” Thimo
n said. My heart skipped a beat. “Who found this again?”

  “Juanita,” I said. “She’s the one who helped us last spring. When we fought October Jones.”

  Thimon nodded. “Ah, so that’s Juanita. Okay. That’s good. I think we have enough to go on. Are you guys ready for your first assignment?”

  “I can’t.” Benny held up his phone. “If I don’t get the north fields planted with okra, my goats are going to starve come winter.”

  A sly smile crept across Thimon’s mouth. “What if the assignment involves giving the two of you superpowers?”

  Benny jumped up and tossed his phone on the bed. It was the last anybody heard of his virtual goats.

  7

  I’D LOVE A GOOD FIGHT WITH A NINJA

  I had high hopes. I figured Thimon would give us the superpowers, and we’d be conking Joneses on the head by suppertime. But that’s not how it happened.

  Thimon locked the bedroom door. He sat down and motioned for us to sit next to him. I could tell the last thing Benny wanted to do was sit down, but he followed Thimon’s directions.

  Thimon reached out and touched us both on the forehead. I felt a slight shock. I wasn’t sure if it was static electricity, or if it had to do with Thimon’s power.

  “I don’t feel any different,” Benny said.

  “I haven’t given you a power yet,” Thimon said. “But I had to make a mental connection to both of you.”

  Benny was rocking back and forth in anticipation. “Okay, so what now? What’s next?”

  “Well, now you ask me for a power,” Thimon said. “I have seven of them—flame, lightning, speed, strength, frost, supersight, and flying.”

  “Speed,” Benny said immediately. “Give me speed.”

  “Rafter?” Thimon looked at me.

  I almost said strength, but I couldn’t exactly start destroying things in my bedroom.

  I looked out the window. “Flight,” I replied.

  “Flight and speed,” Thimon said. “Coming right up.”

  Thimon snapped his fingers, and I felt a warm tingling in my feet. The feeling spread up my legs and into the rest of my body. It was the same feeling I’d had when I first got my worthless power. And then again when I’d gotten my real power.

  Something clicked in my mind. The new power washed over me, and in an instant I knew how to use it. I knew everything about flying.

  I rose off the floor—still sitting cross-legged—grinning like a fool.

  I felt power. Not just the power of flight, but the power that comes from being super. I could do something that nobody else could do. I was no longer Rafter-without-his-power. I was Rafter Hans Bailey . . . superhero.

  I floated up until my head touched the ceiling, plans racing through my mind the entire time.

  Benny stood up and looked around the room, his face panicked. “I can’t run in here or I’ll knock something over. I’m going outside.”

  “Wait,” Thimon said. “There are a few rules.”

  “Aw, man,” Benny complained. “Every time something good happens, there have to be rules.”

  “Before we take on the Joneses, you have to learn how to use your powers,” Thimon said. “We’re going to practice for a few days, but remember, it’s important to stay hidden. We can’t lose the element of surprise.”

  He stood and went over to his backpack. He unzipped one of the pockets and retrieved a small plastic case, which he held out to us. “Take one of these.”

  The case held three black objects, each shaped like teeth and about the same size.

  I lowered myself to the floor and took one of the objects. It was soft and foamy, with a solid center. “What are these?”

  Thimon put one of the objects in his ear. “It’s a micro-earpiece. This’ll let us talk to each other. It has a range of about twenty miles, so don’t wander too far.”

  Benny grabbed the last earpiece and shoved it in his ear.

  “Wait, you’re not coming with us?”

  Thimon shook his head. “I have to stay here, where it’s safe. If something were to happen to me while you were flying a thousand feet in the sky . . . that could be bad.”

  Benny went over to the window and yanked it open. “Rafter,” he called over his shoulder. “There’s no time for stairs. Fly me out to somewhere I can run.”

  Benny’s enthusiasm was contagious, but I remembered what Thimon had just said. “Benny, we can’t fly out the window, we’d give away our superpowers.”

  To my surprise, Thimon said it was fine. “Just fly straight up and fly fast. Nobody will see you. Once you’re high enough, we’ll find somewhere secluded.”

  “How about the canyon?” Benny asked. “There’s lots of places up there that you can’t get to by car. We’d be all alone.”

  I nodded. “Benny’s right. Lots of trees. Nobody would see us. We could practice our powers there.”

  “Okay,” Thimon said. “You both have your earpieces. You’re good to go.”

  Benny climbed out onto the roof and I followed. I made sure none of the neighbors were in their backyards. We were alone.

  I grabbed Benny under the arms. “Ready?” I asked.

  Benny grinned and gave me a thumbs-up.

  I looked once more around the neighborhood, and then leaped into the sky.

  I cannot find the right words to describe the feeling. I’d flown before—many times with Dad. But this was different. I was in control. There was nothing between me and the ground. My feet dangled. The sky surrounded me in a brilliant blue. Benny whooped like a little kid who’d just gotten a pony for his birthday.

  I flew straight up at first, high enough so that no one could see us from the ground. Then I soared. I banked first to the left, and then to the right. I let out a yell that drowned out even Benny’s hollering.

  This is what it meant to be super. Doing something nobody else could do.

  I could hear Thimon laughing through the earpiece. “Glad you guys are having fun, but maybe it’s time to head up to the canyon. I have a feeling you’ll need to know each power before we can fight the Joneses.”

  I got my bearings and flew toward the mountain range, dropping lower as we got close. I flew past the dam at the base of the canyon, and then farther into the mountains. I found a secluded meadow and dropped Benny down on the ground. Before I could say a word, he’d disappeared. All that was left was a trail of dust that showed which way he’d run.

  “Benny!” I laughed, assuming he could hear me through the earpiece. “Come back. Let’s practice together.”

  With a rush of air and a skid of pebbles, Benny came racing back.

  “You know what this canyon needs?” Benny grinned.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Ninjas,” Benny said. “I’d love a good fight with a ninja.”

  “Yeah, I heard this place is overflowing with the dreaded tree ninja,” I said, smiling.

  We practiced. I wanted to be fighting Joneses, but Thimon was right. First we had to practice.

  There was a lot to learn with each power. For example, when you had strength, you couldn’t just lift boulders into the air. You had to have the right balance and grip. Most boulders didn’t come with handles.

  With speed you had to be aware what kind of surface you were on so you knew how long it would take to slow down or speed up. With fire you could make large orange explosions that burned out quickly, or small, focused, white fire that cut like a welder’s flame.

  Perhaps most important, Benny and I learned how to work together. Having one person with a superpower was good. Having two people with superpowers was even better. But the best was when we combined our two powers to do things that surprised even Thimon.

  One move involved me having strength and Benny having lightning. I would whirl Benny around like I was a discus thrower and then hurl him into the air. He could fire bolts of lightning from a high vantage point, and then at the last second, ask Thimon for flight. He’d return to me and we’d start all
over again. It was like having a superhero who had flight and lightning at the same time.

  By dinnertime we were exhausted. Exhausted, but thrilled. For the first time since my encounter with October, I felt super again. We hadn’t fought a battle. We hadn’t come any closer to finding the Joneses. But we had powers, and we were learning how to use them. That was the first step.

  It was exhilarating, and I wanted to do it again. And again. I could have spent forever in that canyon.

  Thimon’s voice came over the earpiece. It sounded like he was shouting to somebody else. “We’ll be right out!” His voice returned to normal. “Your parents are calling us for dinner. You guys better come home fast.”

  The power of flight rushed through me. I picked up Benny and leaped into the air. It took only a few minutes before Benny and I were crawling through the window again.

  Thimon touched our foreheads again to break his mental connection.

  “That was totally wild,” Benny said. “We have got to go out again after dinner.”

  Thimon grinned. “We’ll see. You guys picked up on things very quickly.”

  Mom was setting dinner on the table. Dad was finishing up the cooking. “Did you boys have fun playing up in your room?” Mom asked.

  My stomach dropped. Thimon looked at me and gave a small shake of his head. I didn’t like the idea of keeping information from Mom. But I’d made a promise to Thimon.

  “Yeah, Mom.” I said. “It’s been a pretty uneventful Sunday afternoon.”

  I ate my mashed potatoes and chard, but they tasted . . . off.

  I knew why. A few hours ago I’d felt invincible. I had superpowers again. We were practicing to beat the Joneses. And then . . .

  It’s been a pretty uneventful Sunday afternoon.

  I think the day would have been perfect, if it hadn’t been for the little lie I’d had to tell.

  8

  I’D CHOOSE THE BEAR

  We spent the next three days practicing out in the canyon. Mom commented that we were spending a lot of time “in our room,” but it was easy enough to change the subject whenever she asked us about it.