by TJ Klune
“I was trying to make myself an Extraordinary,” Nick blurted before he could stop himself.
An inscrutable look crossed Dad’s face, there and gone before Nick could begin to parse through it. “What?”
“This. All this … stupid crap. I was trying—I don’t know. It started out for all the wrong reasons, and by the time I figured out how to do it for the right reasons, it still didn’t work. And then I—”
“When was the last time you took your pill?”
That stopped Nick cold. “What?”
“Your pill, Nick. When was the last time you took your medication?”
Why the hell did that matter? “Uh. Earlier today. Mary brought it for me. Why?”
Dad relaxed slightly. “Just making sure. You’re talking a little fast. Your head okay?”
“Yeah. It’s fine. I’m not—”
“Why, Nick? Why would you think you needed to be an Extraordinary?”
Nick was getting whiplash at the changes in conversation. “It started out dumb. For reasons that don’t make sense now, when I think about it. But it changed because of you. I wanted to do what I could to keep you safe.” He shook his head. “I was too late. You’re already here.”
“I don’t need you to protect me, Nicky. I’m the parent here. It’s my job to do that for you.”
“Why can’t we do it for each other?”
Dad sighed. “Because you shouldn’t have to worry about things like that. All I wanted you to focus on was growing up and finding your path. I don’t need you to be an Extraordinary, Nicky. Not when you’re already extraordinary to me.”
Nick tried his best to hold back. But it was damn near impossible, and he burst out laughing. “Oh my god. That was terrible. You’re such a dork.”
Dad frowned. “It wasn’t terrible. It was heartfelt. Why are you—would you stop laughing? I’m being serious here!”
“I know. That’s what makes it hysterical. We were having a moment and you had to go and ruin it—”
“You’re grounded for the rest of your natural life.”
“Maybe I would feel more intimidated if you didn’t look like you were going to cry with every breath you took.”
“Broken ribs hurt, you little jerk.”
“Why are you still talking?”
“Because you need to know that I love you just the way you are.”
Nick’s laughter faded. “I know, Dad.”
“Good. Now that’s done, on to the next. Seems like you’ve finally figured out that Seth wants to kiss you.”
“What? Dad, no!”
“Dad, yes. Is it reciprocated?”
Nick thought about pressing the call button and demanding the nurse sedate his dad for the rest of the evening. “Why are we talking about this? Go back to the sappy stuff! I don’t want you to be an Extraordinary, because you’re already ex—”
“You should invite him over for dinner when I get home. It’ll be you, me, Seth, and my gun.”
Everything was terrible. “You can’t threaten him! I’m not some debutante in the 1950s who needs their honor protected.”
“Watch me threaten him. Do you remember what I showed you with the banana? You have to squeeze the base and roll the condom down slowly to make sure—”
“Why are you like this?”
“I’m not going to kill him,” Dad said seriously. “I’m gonna threaten him a little. Make sure he knows that he doesn’t get to stick anything in you without explicit consent.”
Nick gaped at him. “What makes you think I’m going to be the one to have something stuck in me? Maybe I’m going to be the one doing the sticking!” He wished desperately he could take that back as soon as it left his mouth.
Dad looked Nick up and down before snorting. “Yeah, okay, Nicky. Keep telling yourself that.”
“Ack! Nurse! Nurse. My father is losing his mind! Someone help me make him stop—”
They could hear footsteps running down the hall.
“Sorry,” he called out. “I … didn’t mean it?”
“Great,” Dad said with a frown. “Now you’re getting us both in trouble.”
But no one came into the room. A nurse ran by the open door without looking in. And then another nurse ran by. And then another.
Nick didn’t know what was happening. Dad let him go as Nick went to the doorway. A group of people had gathered in the waiting room down the corridor, staring at a TV mounted on the wall.
Another nurse rushed down the hallway, a harried look on her face.
“What’s going on?” Nick asked her.
“Extraordinaries,” she said, sounding breathless as she passed him by. “They’re fighting. Midtown. It sounds bad. People are going to get hurt.”
Nick’s blood turned to ice as he turned quickly back into the room, heading for the TV in the corner.
“What happened?” Dad asked, wincing as he pressed a button on the bed to raise him up to a sitting position.
Nick didn’t answer him. He picked up the remote off the table and turned the TV on. He flipped through the channels until he found what he was looking for.
He took a slow step backward.
“—and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rebecca Firestone said, and for the first time since Nick had heard her voice, she actually sounded scared. “They are ruthlessly attacking each other. It’s like they’re trying to kill each other. I can’t believe this is— Oh my god!”
It looked like the end of the world.
The camera shot was shaky, Rebecca Firestone’s voice almost drowned out by the winds whipping around the helicopter.
But it was clear enough.
Nick could see Burke Tower far in the background, silhouetted against the setting sun, the cloudy sky streaked pink and orange, the clouds alight. There were blurry movements, almost too fast for the camera to follow, bursts of bright fire and dark shadows. They slowed briefly, Pyro Storm hovering high above the streets of Nova City, cape flapping around him, arms ablaze. Shadow Star was perched high on an antenna tower, hanging off of it with one arm, shadows gathering below him.
The chopper was too far away to pick up any conversation, but it was obvious they were shouting at each other, mouths twisting in fury.
“Our beloved hero, Shadow Star, is doing his best to hold back the villain known as Pyro Storm,” Rebecca Firestone shouted. “Whatever evil scheme he has planned will be thwarted by the bravery of the savior in shadows. We won’t be— What is he doing?”
The antenna tower began to list to the right, the shadows crawling along the roof twisting the metal. Struts and supports bent until they broke with an audible screech. Shadow Star backflipped off of the tower, landing in a crouch on the roof. He rose slowly, raising his arms. Lights burst from the bracelets on his wrists, making the shadows multiply. They took shape until they were corporeal, lifting the tower off the roof of the building.
And then Shadow Star hurled it at Pyro Storm.
“No,” Nick whispered.
Instead of trying to get out of the way, Pyro Storm flew toward it. Right before he collided with the tower, he spun quickly, cape swirling around him as he soared through the tower, managing to avoid the metal struts. He’d almost made it to the other side when he was clipped in the shoulder by what looked like the corner of a satellite dish. He was knocked off course, a trail of blood falling behind him.
The antenna tower fell toward the busy streets below.
“I can’t believe I’m seeing this!” Rebecca Firestone said, voice shrill. “Shadow Star just tried to stop Pyro Storm, but the villain managed to dodge his attack! And because of that, it’s falling! Pyro Storm is going to cause so many people to get hurt! You saw it here first! This is all on Pyro Storm!”
Nick really hated Rebecca Firestone.
But before he could curse her name like she so deserved, Pyro Storm righted himself and turned away from Shadow Star. The antenna tower hurtled toward the ground. People below were screaming, running along
the sidewalks, pushing each other viciously as they tried to flee. The growing shadow loomed large.
A bright flash of fire burst as Pyro Storm rocketed toward the tower. But instead of trying to knock it out of the way, he flew by it, landing on the street below so hard, the asphalt cracked beneath his feet. People huddled around him, hands over their heads as the tower crashed into the side of a building, causing it to spin wildly, glass shattering, mortar splitting and raining down after it.
The camera managed to focus right on Pyro Storm as he raised his hands over his head.
And then he exploded.
Or, at least that was what it looked like. A wave of fire roared and the screen whited out. Cries of horror came from up and down the halls of the hospital. Nick’s dad grunted behind him.
But Nick stood still.
He waited.
He heard Rebecca Firestone screaming, the blades of the helicopter roaring in the background.
“Come on,” Nick muttered. “Come on. Come on.”
The white light began to fade.
Rebecca Firestone’s voice cut off.
Nick’s blood rushed in his ears.
He wasn’t sure what he was seeing at first. It looked as if the street was ablaze, fire rippling as it licked the sides of the buildings around it. For a moment, Nick thought Pyro Storm—Seth—had exploded, taking everyone with him.
But then he saw it for what it truly was.
The antenna tower hadn’t landed on the street.
It was suspended above the street, having landed on a wave of fire in the shape of a dome. Nick watched as it broke in half, sliding almost lazily down each side of the dome, leaving ripples in the blaze as if it were the surface of a lake. The two halves landed on the street on either side of the dome before they tilted and fell against the sides of buildings. They didn’t move after that.
The dome of fire dissipated.
In its center stood Pyro Storm, hand still raised above his head, chest heaving.
Around him were dozens of people, huddled on the ground. They were clinging to one another, clinging to him, holding on to his legs. Blood trickled down his arm from where he’d been hit by the tower.
Rebecca Firestone sounded strangled. “And Pyro Storm just … saved them. He could have let them die, but instead he … saved them?”
The people on the street rose slowly, looking around. When they saw the towers leaning against the buildings, they cheered, hugging one another and jumping up and down.
“Okay,” Rebecca Firestone said. “It’s not that great. He did one thing. Think about all the other times he tried to—”
Another voice came on-screen. “Uh, Rebecca? It’s Steve Davis here, back at the Action News desk. Can you please tell us what you’re seeing?”
“Yes. What I’m seeing is that Shadow Star tried to save the day, but he instead made an honest mistake, and there are people dancing in the streets because they weren’t crushed. Some woman is trying to get Pyro Storm to hold her baby so she can take a picture! Doesn’t she know that Pyro Storm most likely eats babies and—”
Her voice was cut off.
Steve Davis appeared on screen in a little box in the corner, looking uncomfortable. “It looks as if we’re having technical difficulties with the audio. We still have a live video feed, but Rebecca Firestone won’t be able to report on what she’s—okay. Ah—hold on a moment. It looks like something’s happening.”
The camera panned away from where people were clapping Pyro Storm on the back, a second baby being thrust into his arms. The shot rose up until it focused on Shadow Star who stood at the edge of the roof, staring at the scene below.
He was surrounded by shadows.
It wasn’t like anything Nick had seen before.
The shadows looked alive, like they were roiling. They reached out around him, shaped like tentacles, twisting along the side of the building.
And he looked furious.
Brick cracked. Windows broke. Below, people started screaming as debris rained down around them.
The camera jerked back toward the ground. The citizens of Nova City were running once again.
Pyro Storm was looking up at Shadow Star, a frown on his face.
Then everything went to hell. The screen seemed to shake as the camera spun, and there was a flash of Rebecca Firestone screaming silently, the pilot yelling as he clutched the cyclic-pitch lever, the tail boom and rotor crumpling as a large shadow wrapped around it and yanked and—
The screen went dark.
Steve Davis was pale. “I—we seem to have lost the feed.” He looked beyond the camera into the studio, eyes wide. “I don’t know if we—ah. I don’t know if we’ll get it back. There’s—hold on.” He reached up and touched his earpiece. His hand trembled. “Okay. I’m—ah. I’m being told that it appears the helicopter went down. We’re trying to confirm if—yes. Yes, it appears the Action News Chopper has crashed, and … Shadow Star was the cause.” He swallowed thickly. “I don’t know if—we’re going to take a quick commercial break. When we return, we’ll continue with the live report of the mayhem in midtown today. Stay with us.”
Nick turned off the TV.
He set down the remote.
He turned toward his Dad, who watched him with an unreadable expression. “If someone who loved you lied to you, kept things from you, hurt you, but they needed your help, would you do it?”
Dad’s facade broke, and he looked stricken. “I—” He coughed, clearing his throat. “I would. Because I can never turn my back on someone who needs me. If I was lied to, if I was kept in the dark and my heart was breaking, I would still do everything I could. Sometimes, we lie to the ones we love most to keep them safe.”
Nick nodded tightly. “I don’t have time to explain, but I have to go.”
Dad’s eyes widened. “Wait, no, Nick, what are you talking about? Go where?”
Nick tried to smile. It trembled on his face before it collapsed. “You said that you didn’t need me to be an Extraordinary because I already was extraordinary. There’s someone who needs to hear the same from me. If something happens and I don’t get to say it, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” He backed toward the doorway.
Dad’s eyes narrowed as he struggled to sit back up. “Nick, don’t. Don’t you do this. You stay right where you are.”
Nick’s eyes were wet, but he couldn’t do anything about that now. “I love you. And I’m so happy you’re my dad.”
He turned and ran, his father shouting after him.
18
By the time he rang the doorbell, it was dark outside. It’d taken him nearly an hour to get here, even though the streets were as empty as he’d ever seen them. Those people who had been out were rushing, their gazes turned toward the sky as if they expected fire to rain down on them.
Nick heard the chimes echo in the house.
He waited.
Nothing.
He rang the doorbell again. And again. And again. And—
The door flew open. “One time is enough. I can’t move as fast as I— Nick?”
Bob Gray looked shocked to find who stood on his porch.
“Hello,” Nick said, mustering up all the courage he had. “I’d like to see Pyro Storm’s secret lair. Please and thank you.”
* * *
It was … disappointing.
Nick knew there were more important things to focus on right now, seeing as how his best friend who he might be in love with was fighting to the death with his ex-boyfriend, but he couldn’t help it. He was finally standing in the lair of an Extraordinary, and it was boring.
There was exercise equipment scattered around the basement of the Gray home. A punching bag hanging from the ceiling. A chin-up bar on the doorway to the stairs.
There were scorch marks on the wall. On the ceiling. On the floor.
In the corner lay a discarded glove that looked like it was part of Pyro Storm’s costume.
And the washer and dryer.
Bob snorted. “Oh, this isn’t everything.” He walked over to a wall and pressed his hand against a panel. It lit up around his hand and a door Nick hadn’t noticed slid open. “Ta-da.”
“Oh my god,” Nick whispered, unable to believe it was finally happening. The door would open, and they’d have to slide down a pole into underground caverns where—
“Hi, Nick,” Martha said, sitting behind a desk in a small room. There was a computer monitor in front of her. Gibby sat beside her. Jazz stood next to Gibby.
And that was it.
That was it.
“Dammit,” Nick muttered. “Worst superhero secret lair reveal ever.”
Bob cuffed the back of his head. “I built that sliding door myself. Mind your manners, son. It took me six months.”
“Good to see you, Nicky,” Jazz said, reaching out to squeeze his hand as he came around the desk. “I knew you’d come. Gibby didn’t. She said you were going to be a little dick about it.”
“I didn’t say that,” Gibby said.
“Thanks, Gibby.” Nick knew she’d have his back when all was said and done.
“I thought you were going to be a whiny little dick about it. There’s a difference.”
Fair play. “Ugh. Fine.”
She eyed him warily. “You still mad at me?”
Nick shrugged. “Maybe. But if I am, I’ll get over it. You’re my friend.”
Gibby looked relieved. “Awesome.”
“But if you keep anything like this from me again, I’m gonna kick you in the junk.”
“Duly noted,” she said dryly.
“O-kay,” Nick said, clapping his hands once. “Team Pyro Storm, assemble!”
They stared at him.
He frowned. “That’s … that’s not what you guys call yourselves?”
Martha shook her head.
“You guys don’t have a name at all, do you?”
Bob scratched the back of his neck.
God, he was dealing with a bunch of amateurs. “Well, then, this is awkward. And unsatisfactory. In fact, ever since I got over the initial shock of the whole my-best-friend-is-an-Extraordinary thing, it’s been one disappointment after another.”