Human Heroes

Devon was walking to school, his bag hanging heavily off his shoulders. He tried to rub the syrup stain off of his hand-me-down red shirt before entering Trevino Middle School. His white, high-tops’s shoelaces were left untied, dragging on the ground, getting dirtier with every step. He was hoping for one thing when he got to school; that Nico wouldn’t see him. This all started one year ago, the first day of seventh grade.

~~~

Devon had just moved from Maine to Illinois, into a new school, Trevino Middle. It was hard to leave Maine because he loved the smell of the luminous forest, the shimmer of the lake near his house, and the sound of the birds singing. Everything in Illinois was different. But then he’d found his love for comic books. He collected as many as he could, spending hours everyday sitting on his porch swing, reading them. But when he showed up his first day at Trevino, he met a boy named Nico. He had a confident walk, with chocolate brown hair bouncing with each step. There wasn’t a valid reason for the tension between them— it appeared as soon as they met:

 As Devon walked to his first day at Trevino, he encountered Nico and his friend group. Fred and Riverr, some of Nico’s “friends,” saw Devon reading a comic book. 

“Woah! Is that The Great Battle comic book?!?” Riverr called out, “I’ve been looking for that book forever!” 

“Where’d you get it?” Fred questioned. 

“Ummm, one of my friends from Maine gave it to me,” Devon answered.

 “I have that book,” Nico said, feeling robbed of attention. “In fact, I can get any book I want because my dad is the writer of The Threat of Malmundi comics.” 

“What! That’s my favorite series yet!” Devon exclaimed, excited. 

“Fred, Riverr, come on!” Nico commanded jealously, “I got a comic book that only you can read. Dylan, or whatever your name is, sorry, but you can’t read it,” Nico sneered. “Go back to where you came from, new kid.”

Devon  left the group, his head hanging down, trying to hold his rejection inside. From then on, Devon never talked to Nico… until eighth grade.

~~~

In present time, the year 2026, Devon rushed to class— the bell was about to ring— when he saw Nico stuffing a comic book into his backpack. The comic book didn’t officially exist yet. Earlier that night, he’d stolen it from his father’s studio. The memory made him uneasy:

Nico checked the clock. It was one in the morning. 

Perfect, Nico had thought, My parents must be asleep now. He’d crept out of his room, trying his best to avoid the creaky floorboards. The hallway was eerily dark, but Nico didn’t dare turn on any lights. As he passed his parent’s room he’d heard loud, ungraceful snoring. He’d allowed himself a brief sigh of relief once he made it to the living room. 

From there he’d hesitated at the entrance to his father, Walter Dieden’s, writing studio. Nico wasn’t allowed in there in the day, much less in the middle of the night, but he was hungry to read the conclusion to The Threat of Malmundi series— The Final Battle, so he’d disobeyed his father, who was secretive about his work until it was published, and snuck into his studio. Nico got a weird feeling that all of the villains and heroes on the comic covers were watching him. He’d continued to his father’s old wooden desk and found what he was looking for. Nico gasped. It was just as he’d imagined. 

With The Final Battle securely under his arm, he’d hurried out of the room, throwing it a nervous backward glance. When Nico returned to his room, he stuffed the comic into the drawer of his bedside table and collapsed onto his bed.

Nico was yanked back to reality by Devon’s whisper-shouting.

“Wait! That comic book hasn’t even come out yet! How’d you get it?!” Devon exclaimed suspiciously.

“I’m not telling you,” Nico answered, secretively.

“Why not? Wait… did you steal it from your dad!?” Devon whispered, trying not to be loud. Everyone knew that Nico’s father was a rich man, known for writing the famous, soon to be finished, comic series, The Threat of Malmundi. All kids adored this series, and couldn’t wait for the last one to be published. 

“N-no!” 

“Mmhmm. Maybe if you get in trouble, you’ll finally get the punishment you deserve,” Devon said with a revengeful grin. 

“Please don’t tell anyone! I’ll do anything,” Nico said nervously.

Anything? Devon thought. “Meet in the custodian’s closet after school so I can read it, and you have to let me be in your friend group,” Devon said matter-of-factly.

“Fine,” Nico grumbled, staring at his pricey Nike sneakers.

“Cool!” Devon said, satisfied. “Well, I gotta go. I’m late for History already.” He disappeared into the maze of buildings.

~~~

As the final bell rang, Devon scurried to get to the custodian’s closet while Nico walked leisurely, hoping that Devon forgot about the meeting. But there Devon was, with a thrilled smile plastered to his face. 

“Hand it over,” Devon asked, pleased Nico came. 

“Here it is,” Nico said, unenthusiastically. “But if you so much as crease one corner, you're really in for it,” he added vehemently.

The door rattled. 

“Uh oh! It’s the custodian! Hide!” Devon whispered frantically. But it was too late.

“Hey! Get out!” the custodian shouted, until he saw what they were reading, and his mood suddenly changed. 

“Are you boys reading a comic?” The boys nodded nervously. “Gimme it, will you?” Devon glanced at Nico and they shared a petrified look before Devon reluctantly handed over the comic.

“The Threat of Malmundi, huh? Whoa, The Final Battle! I didn’t know the last book was out!” The boys exchanged nervous glances. “You know what? I have the rest of the series in my bag!” he said calmly. 

“W-wa-ait. So you aren’t mad that we're here?” Nico asked.

“Not at all! Well, a little ‘cause you’re not supposed to be here, but you’re not doing anything bad. You’re reading comics! I’ve been into comics all my life; I’m a die-hard collector. I’m just happy I finally found someone with the last book in my favorite series,” the custodian said cheerfully. 

As the custodian took out the comics, he lay them flat in a circle, knowing exactly what was going to happen. Right after he set the comics down, he dashed out of the room, calling desperately behind him, “Rescue my brother, Robert!” 

A blinding light flashed in the middle of the circle. Sparks flew everywhere. A purple blaze flared in the middle, as the custodian scurried out the door. 

“Whats happening!?” Devon asked, frightened.

“I don’t know!” Nico answered nervously. 

The wind brushed against them, forming a little tornado above the blinding light. 

“Ahhhhhh!!” Devon screamed. Nico went pale.

The boys disappeared and the room was filled with silence and brooms once more.

~~~ 

Nico peeled his eyes open. He slowly came back to himself and felt hard ground under him. A sidewalk maybe? Where was he? Then everything came flooding back to him. 

“Devon?” Nico called. “Devon, where are you?” Nico looked around, starting to panic. Then he heard a faint, confused-sounding mumble behind him. Nico turned and saw Devon sitting dazed on the concrete. Devon blinked twice and then his eyes widened. He bolted up and took some jerky steps backwards, trying to back away from what they both knew.

“N-Nico?” Devon started to shake. “Where are we?” Just then Nico saw something— or someone— in bright colors amongst the clouds out of the corner of his eye. A superhero? Nico left Devon’s question unanswered. He couldn’t bring himself to say it quite yet. He wanted to hold on to his denial of the undeniable: they were inside the comic. Inside The Threat of Malmundi.                       

“Oh my god, oh my god…” Devon muttered under his breath. Nico tried not to freak out. 

This is all my fault, Nico thought miserably. If only I hadn’t stolen. If only I hadn’t spilled my secret on top of that. Then he realized. But it isn’t entirely my fault! That custodian is really in for it when we come back.

As if Nico had spoken out loud, Devon mumbled, “If we come back.” Nico was surprised for a moment, but then his mind hardened. 

“We will,” Nico grunted.

“A good first step could be becoming real friends, ya know?” Devon suggested feebly.

“Fine,” Nico agreed, caught a little off guard. “Handshake?”  he offered awkwardly. They shook hands. Devon smiled. Soon, Nico felt a grin on his face as well. He’d never really had a real friend. He was only popular because his rich father was the writer of a famous comic series. He’d really only had followers. Maybe something good would come of his thievery after all. Maybe Nico would make a friend. 

“Okay,” Devon said, reenergized. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Devon admitted. “Maybe asking for help in there,” he pointed to a lone building across the street 

“Let’s do it.”

The boys opened the door, walking forward. They fell into a hole right when they walked in.

“Ouch! Where are we?” Nico asked frantically.

As the boys came to their senses, they noticed where they were. The room looked like where security guards gear up. There were flashlights, walkie-talkies, some keys, and a taser. 

“I think we fell from there!” Devon observed.

“Come on, let's grab some stuff and get outta here. Look, there's a door on your right,” Nico offered. 

As the boys walked out of the room, they saw a lengthy hallway. Minutes passed, as the boys finally got to the end. They breathed rapidly. 

“Geez, that took a while, but look! There's a door!” Devon shouted. 

As the boys opened the door, they came across an ill-lit tunnel.

“I think this is our only way out,” Devon assumed. 

The boys looked back at the extensive hallway. 

“No going back now,” Nico said, shrugging his shoulders. 

The two walked into the overlong hallway. 

About an hour passed, as the boys trudged through the tunnel. 

“Uh, oh. The path splits! Where do we go?” Devon asked anxiously.

“Well, I have a good feeling about the left,” Nico answered confidently. 

“Okay…” Devon acknowledged.

Minutes passed, until the boys heard faint sounds.

“Help! Please!” said a muffled voice.

“Come on, let's follow the sound,” Nico commanded.

There he was. His hands entangled with a rope. A bandana around his mouth, struggling to move.

“Who’s he?” Devon questioned.

“Hang on. Let’s take this thing off his mouth, and if he tries to hurt us, we have a taser,” Nico said, as he ripped off the bandada from the stranger’s mouth.

“What's your name? How’d you get here? Do you know what this is?” Devon interrogated. 

“My n-name is Rob-b--bert. Som-mewhere 20 yea-” the man stuttered, interrupted.

“Wait, you’re Robert?!” Nico questioned, “Your brother sent us into this mess to ‘rescue’ you.”

“Here! I have a bunch of keys. One might work for the handcuffs!” Devon said reassuringly.

It took awhile until they found the right key. 

“Yes! It worked! Now let’s get out of here,” Nico cheered. 

The boys turned around, trekking through the empty tunnel. 

“Look! That's where the path splits!” Devon called out, “Which way do we go?”

“Well, there's no point in going back where we came from, so let’s just go left,” Nico replied.

“Yeah,” Robert agreed.

And the three walked. Every step they took, a tiny piece of life was being drained out of them.

“I can’t do this,” Nico panted.

“But look! There's lights,” Robert motivated, “Come on!”

The threesome ran with hope. 

As the boys finally came across the light, they noticed it wasn’t the outdoors. “W-w-w-wait,” Devon stuttered, “This isn’t outside, this is a door!”

“What do you thi- ahhhh! What was that! I think I just saw some monster! Wearing a waiter outfit! What does this mean?” Devon whisper-shouted, trembling at every breath, having all kinds of emotions rushing through him. What if I never see my family again! What if I die!

“Shhh, we’ll be fine. Let’s sneak past this waiter-servant-fish and  escape,” Robert told Devon.

The three got down. They opened the door just enough to slither out.

As they came out, they hid behind a cabinet, but it was too late. The creature spotted them.

The fish man shouted in some strange language. Although they didn’t understand what he said, they expected it to be something along the lines of, “Help! There’s intruders!”

The fish-man grabbed the threesome with an iron grip, tieing them up with a thick string. 

“Get off me!” Nico bellowed angrily.

Devon stayed rather silent, thinking that he’d better be obedient to survive.

The creature was shouting, as if they were calling out for someone. 

“Do you hear that?” Nico questioned them.

THUMP! A dark shadow walked through the blurry windows. The tension in the air was extreme.

“It's him,” Robert mumbled, “He’s here.”

“Who dares come to my fortress?!” the man bellowed, his inky mustache twitching. He turned while his deep, dark blue cape wrapped around his body

“I see what’s happening! You’re heroes in disguise! I’ll put you in my machine and steal your powers. Then I’ll take over this world, and Earth! Mwahahaha!” Ricardo manically sneered. 

More fish-men came and snatched the hostages, dragging them into a room filled with hazard signs. 

“What is this?” Nico questioned after seeing an enormous machine.

“This is what’ll start my revolution! It’ll take your powers, and transfer them to me!” Ricardo bellowed.

“But we don’t even have pow-” the two got snatched into the shiny, silver machine.

A loud buzzer went off, red lights flickered, and the boys were tied up. But it wasn’t going as planned. 

“What's happening! Why’s this stuff going inside me!” Devon yelped.

“Nooooo! He got the last hero’s powers!” Ricardo cried furiously. He turned off the machine.

 “We. Have. Superpowers. Sick!” Devon cried passionately.

“Hold back, Devon. Superheroes use their powers for the good. In this case, we need to destroy Ricardo and his minions,” Nico advised wisely.

Lightning shot out of their hands. White sparks filled the air. The boys turned each servant into ash.

“Now you, Ricardo. You’re gonna get the punishment you deserve,” Nico said in disdain, “Lock him up!” he shouted, as they threw him where Robert used to be.

“GLAE GEALE!” one fish-man shouted.

“We didn’t get all of them! Get him!” Devon roared.

The two missed severely trying to destroy the monster. Lightning flew through Ricardo. He was gone. 

After destroying the monster, the three thought about what just happened. Teleporting into another dimension, finding Robert, fighting an evil villain. 

“I know how to get home. I’ve got all the Human Heros comics in my bag. I’ve found them all over the place,” Robert calmly mentioned, stacking them up.

“So now that we have all of the comics, what do we do?” Asked Nico.

“Well, whatcha think we do?” Devon rebounded the question back at him. “Isn’t it obvious?” 

Nico smiled, understanding. “Yeah, I guess.” They methodically placed the Human Heros comic series in a circle in the power-extraction room, the sudden silence weighing on their shoulders. Soon, there was only the final book in the series, The Bridge Between Two Worlds, left on the ground beside the circle of comics. 

“Do you, uh, wanna do the honors?” Nico offered.

“No, you do it,” answered Devon firmly. Robert nodded in agreement.

“So, uh, we probably won't be back here ever, or I dunno, for awhile… so anything you wanna say before this all fades into the shifty shape of a dream in our suffering, logical brains?”

“Yeah. Um, well, I honestly kinda enjoyed this adventure… I might miss this a little. My regular life is just so… regular.”

“Yeah, I feel you Devon, I feel you. But did you even read Human Heros? We can be superheros in our world too, only, in more subtle ways. And we will.” Robert smiled approvingly.

“We will,” Devon confirmed, smiling. A short, comfortable silence elapsed. Nico looked at Devon and smiled before placing The Bridge Between Two Worlds in the gap of the circle. They were sucked in one by one, their powers left behind.

Sparks. Purple. Silence.

~~~

“Nico!” Devon called happily. It was the first day of high school for both of them, and though they were nervous, they had each other. 

“Devon! Hey, man, how’ve you been?” Devon only smiled in response. Nico knew exactly how he’d been. They’d spent the entire summer together, talking, laughing, and doing stupid challenges like only best buddies could. And of course, they shared the knowledge of another dimension that all of the kids around them were merely holding in their hands, watching unfold before their eyes, and not knowing of its existence. 

And they hadn’t forgotten about their promise to themselves either. Devon glanced down at the comic he was holding: Human Heroes, The Double Linked Chain. It was all about them— him and Nico, connecting the two worlds. You couldn’t find one on their earth, of course, but Robert had his ways. He’d given it to them for Christmas— growing to be like an uncle to the boys, settled back on Earth. Devon shoved it in his backpack and caught up with Nico. Nico was laughing, running after a Dorito wrapper that he finally pounced on, crumpled up, and threw it into the nearest trash can, basketball-style. 

Devon high-fived him before he heard a cry across the street. He raced off to help up a seven-year-oldish boy who'd fallen off his bike. Two minutes later, the boy was smiling again, a band-aid on his right knee and a lollipop in his mouth— things Devon always carried with him nowadays.

Nico and Devon exchanged grins. They were human heroes.