Everything works out as Maria flips me off and shouts back, "Five o'clock! We're going to the river!” and then turns back to her friends. Phase One is complete.
The last class of the day is almost over and I have to get away from school without running into either of the girls and screwing this whole thing up, so I ditch the rest of school rather than go back after lunch. Maria is on for tonight. I'm guessing she meant we're going out to the river to hang out with her all-girl crew at the lake. They’re a pretty tough crowd, and more fun than any group I’ve ever ran with, so it should be good.
Maria's dad lets her and her friends take their camper out and stay the weekend at the lake’s camp grounds, which they do nearly every weekend. What he does not know is Maria and her crew goes out and does the occasional bit of super villainy. The biggest job (that I know about) they have done is an armored car heist over in Emeryville last year. And, the reason I know about that job is I was in on it with them. Hey, I only went because I was short of funds and needed the money for a project I was working on. Doing the job was an easy solution. Besides, I wanted to know what it was like to do a robbery.
That’s right, I’ve been a super villain. For a day. It’s an option for me, because I liked it. Isn’t that what I’ve been saying? That’s right, so don’t get all surprised with the revelation. I also volunteered at the Special Olympics, rescued a kitten from a tree, and beat the dog snot out of some guy who was mugging a little old lady coming out of the Social Security office. Big deal on all counts because I liked doing every one of those things and did none of them because it was the right thing to do.
Anyway, where was I? Oh right. You might wonder about the safety of a bunch of high school girls alone at a campgrounds site. Like, what horror movie reenactment could happen there? I suggest you just follow Maria’s dad’s lead on this. Her dad stopped worrying about her safety a long time ago. Not only is she a powerful fire elemental, she's also a Class 3 physically and doesn't need anyone else to fight her battles. Her dad figured it out when Maria was three years old and she wandered into the street chasing the neighbor's dog. The dog made it across the street, but Maria didn’t and was hit by a SUV doing 45 in a 25 mile per hour zone.
Her dad tried to get to her before she made it into the street, but was too late as he just missed swiping her up as she went between the cars. When the SUV hit she was thrown fifty feet down the road. Her dad was right there and had a front row seat to seeing his little girl run over.
Thinking he was going to see his baby girl dead in the street, he came around the cars parked along the curb to see Maria standing in the middle of the road where she had landed, covered in flames, and saying "doggy" over and over, opening and closing her little hands at the dog that had stopped running to come back and check on her. The entire front of the SUV was engulfed in flames. Her dad has fire powers as well and ran up and picked up his bonfire of a little girl. From then on he stopped being afraid for his little girl and started being more concerned with the wellbeing of any driver, or boy, who gets in her way.
My great dilemma in choosing the life path is a little like my wanting both Tess and Maria. Each fills a want for me. Both are incredibly strong girls, but Tess is good, and represents the life I’ve watched my parents have: a stable, loving home and a good life. Maria represents the opposite: She’s all risk, and excitement, and chaos, and living by your own rules.
I want my life to be both. Some of Tess, and some of Maria, but not all of either. I love the life I had growing up. I love the idea of having a loving family of my own and raising my own kids like my parents. But I also have certain ambitions that may not be attainable to a hero. They are also ambitions that do not typically lead to the sedate and secure life my parents have. It would be a simple thing for me to become a super villain and chase that life of excitement and chaos. Where would it end, though? I’m a smart guy: super genius; mad scientist; inventor; and competitor. I might become a super villain. Or, I could become a superhero. Superhero is more likely to require I live a life like the life I see Tess having, once she finds that right guy. But it will be a lot less of what I see in Maria. I’m not sure yet which one is the bigger draw for me. It will be one or the other because the excitement, adventure, and brutal competition of the world of supers are the keys in the future I am planning. Whichever it is, hero or villain, order or chaos, discipline or absolute freedom, it has to be something I can wrap my entire existence around and give everything to willingly.
Chapter 3
This year I'm the only one going to Nova Academy for Advanced Superhuman Studies in my school. There are a number from my school going to other colleges for supers, just not Nova Academy. It’s the top advanced sciences academy for supers. And it is an open campus that has no requirements of being a hero, or a villain.
Although, Missy Parks from next door started at the Academy last year, and I'm not looking forward to seeing her. She’s as mean as a wolverine and I have no doubt she will make a fine super something one day. She busted my lip in second grade after I let a door close on her because she was taking too long to leave class. It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t have all day to wait for her and she was trying to mess with me.
It was lunch time and Mrs. Froshe made me hold the door open while everyone filed out of class. It’s because our classroom door had a really strong door closer on it that smacked into one of the other kids in the first week of school. After that one of us had to hold the door every day while everyone else filed out. Today it was my turn and I didn't want to end up the last one in the lunch line because I liked to go out in the field and play football every day after eating. If you were late getting on the field, you didn’t get to play.
Well, little Missy decided she was going to take her sweet time. I know she was doing it on purpose because she liked to mess with everyone and she knew I wanted to get in line early to play. She’s mean, I’m telling you. She always has been. So I got tired of waiting and let the door go so I could take off to catch up with everyone. Of course, the door smacked her as it slammed shut. It didn't hurt her a bit as one of her many powers is Class 3, like Maria. Honestly, I could have dropped the entire building the door was attached to on her and she wouldn’t have been hurt. She's also a lightning elemental, but I was fortunate that power didn't manifest until we were in junior high. Anyway, when she caught up with me I was at the head of the line and just about to hand the checker my lunch card. That’s when she grabbed me by the hair and popped me one right in the mouth. I've stayed out of her way ever since.
That was also the day I vowed to make my armor super suit so no one could ever hit me in the mouth again. Or, at least so it doesn’t hurt as much when they do. I’m a problem solver, and getting hit in the mouth is a problem for me.
I’ve mentioned “Class” level a couple times now, so let me explain. A Class 3, in any super power, and especially in physical strength and toughness, is all the rage in the genetic breeding program. It has been for the last twenty years since FTL space drives were invented and NASA put the word out that the only people who will qualify to go on a FTL spaceship is required to be a Class 3 or above physically. That’s so they can handle a constant acceleration of 30Gs. A Class 3 can bench press a couple tons and, like I said, you could drop a building on them and they won’t be hurt.
If your parents do not have the genetics to pass on a power, there is still hope. It's an expensive genetic mod though, because it is such a complex string of genetic code that has to be spliced into your DNA. Attaching super power molecular strands to human DNA is tricky.
When my parents were “designing” me, they didn't include Class 3 strength in their little bag of genetic goodies. If they had, they would have had to give up on most of the other genetic mods they wanted me to have. So they settled for me inheriting the Class 2 physical strength and durability that both of them have. Fortunately, inheriting Class 2 strength from both parents actually resulted in my having the high end of Class 2. I’
ll just going to have to get stronger another way as a super.
What I inherited in strength and toughness doesn’t qualify as Class 3 but it does go well with my Class 3 speed. Class 3 speed means I top out around 160 mph. It’s pretty rare, but I have met people faster than me. What I have never seen is anyone who can match my acceleration and quickness. By the way, when you punch someone, how fast your fist is moving can make up a good bit for not having as much strength in your punch.
There are a huge number of superpowers and they come in a wide range of strengths. Take Ernie’s power making bubbles. It is not strong enough to be useful as a super. But, if he had more power in his bubbles so they could take damage, or resist being broken, then his Class level would be higher. If his power was Class 3 or higher, it would qualify as a bubble shield, and could even stop bullets. Class 4 or 5 bubbles? Who knows. I’ve never seen them.
Chapter 4
There are a few people in my neighborhood, that I know of anyway, who have the class levels needed to get into Nova Academy. My best friend, Ernie "Bubble-E" Beck won't get in, not with his only real power making Class 1 bubbles and his borderline Class 2 strength. I really feel for Ernie. He’s the ultimate superhero in his soul. We both grew up wanting to be superheroes. I sort of grew out of it, while Ernie never gave up the dream.
We met on the playground when we ran into each other. Literally. He was running, holding a blanket cape behind him, and I was zipping around pretending I had a cape. We ran into each other and then we were fighting over who was the better superhero and who got the blanket cape. Yes, I tried to steal his cape. It was the first day of second grade. I won the fight but gave him the cape after one of the playground monitors glared at me and headed over to take it away. I figured it was better for Ernie to have it than have it taken away from both of us. We've been best friends ever since.
A lot of kids, like Ernie, do not have enough power to be called super and refuse to play Superheroes. I think it is because they know other kids that really have super powers can get to be superheroes and it just sucks that they can't. Those kids who do have super powers also like to pick on the kids trying to be superheroes who are only enhanced, or god forbid, baselines. Ernie got away with it because we were always a duo and other kids knew any fight they had with Ernie would also be a fight they had with me.
Not to say I was the toughest super in the neighborhood, but I was one of the fastest. I was also the most willing to get into a fight to defend my friend and everyone knew it. It happened more than Ernie ever knew.
Bubble-E and I are the best crime fighters in our neighborhood, but Marcus, the “Dragon," Shelby and his sidekick, Ken, the “Animal," McGee, still managed to kick our butts behind the community center last year.
They don't technically live in our neighborhood, but they do go to our school. Or, they did. They were seniors when they kicked our junior butts, which is my excuse for losing. No, really that's the only reason they won. They were older than us. That and the Dragon is a Class 3 that you'd have to hit with a truck to take him down. Animal is the weaker of the two, but not by much, so I had Bubble-E take him while I took on the Dragon.
Yes, that's right; we were playing "superheroes" in the eleventh grade. You can do that when you really do have super powers because you're not actually pretending. Bubble-E kind of pretended, but still came up with some rather original uses for his bubbles to fight crime. Just for the record, Animal was given his name when his dad yelled at him, and called him an animal, for fighting after school. He said it in front of a bunch of us kids and he's been called "Animal" ever since. It has nothing to do with Animal’s power to actually shape shift into a werewolf looking thing with giant claws.
Anyway, our fight with the Dragon and Animal was epic. All of us considered ourselves superheroes, but fights between superhero teams are not unknown. They tend to be territorial and the egos are as big as you might expect. When there are no super villain teams running around the neighborhood you fight who you can if you want to play the game. Super villains tend to keep a low profile when they’re kids and claim to be superheroes. Otherwise, they might end up in therapy sessions they really don’t want. That’s my theory.
Everything was going great for a while. The Dragon and I were pretty evenly matched and at an impasse. That is, I couldn't hurt him and he couldn't touch me. I ran around and smacked him upside the head a couple dozen times and he just stood there and glared at me. He was trying to grab me, which would have been the end of me, but I wasn't going to let that happen. Eventually, I figured out I couldn't hurt him and just stood about ten feet away from him and glared back. I had a few other options, but if I use any of my inventions on the neighborhood kids, my dad would give me a thrashing.
The Dragon knew he wasn't going to touch me unless he could find something to throw, and so did I, which is why I had made sure there wasn't anything to throw when I picked this location to have our fight. Thankfully he didn't decide to pick up a glob of dirt and paste me with it. The guy has no imagination. So we finally called a time out for our fight so we could watch Bubble-E and Animal go at it. The Dragon and I decided whoever won between them would win the battle for their team.
Those bubbles sting your eyes like crazy and can even knock you back a bit. They make me cry so I can't see anything. Nobody likes to fight Bubble-E because you look like you’re crying and bawling your eyes out when you fight him, while all he is doing is shooting bubbles into your eyes so you can't see him to hit him back. Animal was putting up a good fight, though, trying to chase down Bubbles as he got smacked in the face and tripped up by thousands of soapy bubbles. Eventually, Animal gave up trying to see and closed his eyes, lowered his head, and just charged in whatever direction he thought the bubbles were coming from.
Thinking back on it, he may have been using sound or smell to locate him as well. I’m not completely sure how “animal” Animal becomes. Bubbles was backing up as fast as he could and moving around all over the field, but was having a hard time avoiding Animal's charging. This went on for a while to the hooting and hollering of both me and the Dragon encouraging our respective teammates. Animal finally caught up with Bubbles and was about to close the final gap when Bubbles stopped shooting bubbles and tried to sidestep Animal’s charge. I had seen him do it before and he was hoping Animal would lose track of him when the bubbles stopped. It worked for a second, but as soon as Animal realized Bubbles had stopped shooting bubbles, he popped open his eyes enough to see where Bubbles had dodged and changed direction right into him at the last moment. Both of them went down hard, with Bubbles taking the worst of it, landing hard on his back in the grass and Animal landing on top of him.
Animal smacked his face into the grass as he almost over flew Bubble's body in an endo, but managed to somehow use his own face to push himself back on top of Bubbles enough that he wasn't able to scoot out from under Animal and make his escape. Too bad it was grass and not cement, because it would have been lights out and a smashed face for Animal if it had been. We would have won the fight. Or, at least that is what the Dragon and I had agreed when I voiced my opinion on the matter. Anyway, it was just grass and so Animal pops back up with a mouth full of grassroots only to receive a face full of bubbles. Bubbles was blasting everywhere at this point in a panicked, last ditch effort to get Animal off of him, squirming the entire time and trying to push him off. There was a cloud of bubbles forming and it was becoming hard to see them.
This is where Animal could finally use his power. He doesn’t have super strength any more than Bubble-E, but he's a lot bigger and has him pinned to the ground, so Bubbles isn't going anywhere.
I had been laughing and joking around with the Dragon ever since we called our truce because our fight wasn't going anywhere anyway, and so we could watch the "Animal and Bubble-E Show." Not anymore. Animal was pissed and was starting to transform into his werewolf form. I watched in slow motion as Animal drew his arm back. No, it really looked like it was in slow mot
ion as I think Animal needed to take some time to transform. Animal’s power is to grow claws on his hands and feet like some kind of werewolf, and that's what he was doing. His face changes too, but that doesn’t matter here. It only takes a few seconds to grow claws and all four limbs grew at the same time. Later I found out Animal does not like to grow claws while he is wearing shoes because it destroys the shoes as his feet change. I guess he wasn't committed enough while chasing Bubbles around that he sacrificed his shoes.
Once they were on the ground, though, Animal kicked his shoes off just before he started drawing his arm back. Growing massive claws on his hands as he drew back, I knew things had gotten dangerous from a little rivalry fight we could all fondly remember in twenty years to a death by evisceration all of us would regret. Especially Bubble-E.
The Dragon and I both yelled, "NO!" at the same time and started for the two on the ground. Ernie's face drained of all color and he threw his arms across his face to protect himself. His bubbles stopped shooting out and it had just become the Animal Slaughters a Sheep Show, with Bubbles as the sheep. Ernie's arms were not going to help much as they would just get shredded by Animal’s claws. But, getting his arms shredded was not his biggest problem. Not when Animal slid down from sitting on Bubble's stomach to sitting on his legs, exposing his stomach. This wasn't a case of Animal just being pissed and a little out of control, Animal was thinking, targeting, and intending to gut my best friend like a pig.
Uh-uh. No, that's not going to happen. I got there first. The Dragon having only taken his first two steps, which his being slow is why he couldn't touch me when we were fighting. I grabbed Animal’s arm before he could follow through and rip Ernie's guts out. When I did, Animal spun on me and tried to take me out with the claws on his other hand, but I caught it too and just held him there. I was a lot stronger than him. Not by a full class, but plenty to hold him. So, he wasn't going to get me with his massive claws.
Nova Academy: A Superhero & Supervillain Novel Page 2