Super Weird

I knock again, shifting my weight from one foot to another. The bag on my shoulder is heavy, the straps cutting into my shoulders. I try to resist the temptation to read his mind, but in the end, I give in, opening my mind to his, and pinpointing where he is.

Ah! Where is my shirt? Come on, I know I laid it out somewhere…. Is that it?! No, it’s the one I wore yesterday. Ugh, I can’t wear something smelly, what would she think? And this stupid blue thing…. Ugh, even my trousers don’t cover it properly. His thoughts say loudly, his stress making them almost painful to listen to. I knock again, closing my mind to his.

“Leo! Let me in! I’m here for studying!” I say, knowing that I can’t reveal my real reason for dropping by. I hear a shuffling and then I grunt, followed by the dorm room door handle jiggling. Then I see a slightly dishevelled Leo standing there, a forced smile on his face.

“Hi, sorry, I forgot you were coming now… I thought it was later, or well, I thought the time was earlier…. Yeah, come in.” He says, nervously, stumbling over his words. I smile at him, trying not to laugh at his obvious nervousness.

“It’s fine, you know how I am with timing as well. I’m honestly surprised I got here even close to the time I had set. Anyway, how are you? Did you see the factory explosion the other day?” I ask casually, knowing he was there because I was there and I had seen him. And that’s how he has the weirdly bright blue mark that’s just poking out of the bottom of his trousers. He pales slightly but tries to play it cool.

“Uh…. how did you know about that?” He asks, so obviously trying to hide something. I give him a ‘Really?’ look.

“Uh… it was all over the TV. Didn’t you see it?” I ask, setting my bag of books on the little coffee table he and his roommate share. He visibly relaxes, and I try not to smile.

“Oh, uh, yeah, of course I did, but uh…. I know you don’t often see the news, so I was just…. Surprised.” He corrects clumsily, referring to the lie I unfortunately have to tell him an awful lot in my line of work. I nod, pretending to understand.

“Yeah, but I was home alone so my dad wasn’t there to yell at me for watching the ‘government’s brain-washing propaganda’.” I say, goofily imitating my dad’s voice to lighten the mood and hopefully lift his nervousness. He finally smiles, letting out a little huff of laughter.

“Yeah, I mean, from what they were showing, it looked intense. I heard some chemicals leaked, but Psyche and Lavaman were there, so I think between them they did ok cleaning it up.” He says, looking sceptically at the pile of books on the table. “By the way, what kind of girlfriend brings study material to her boyfriend’s dorm? Like, usually people get their significant other chocolates, not…. ‘A History of Science’.” I laugh, pulling him down onto the sofa with me.

“Well, what kind of a girlfriend would I be if I didn’t help my boyfriend get the highest grades he could? And yeah, I think Psyche and Lavaman did a good job. It looked like they worked together pretty well.” I say, speaking from experience, of course. He nods and laughs a bit, laying his arm over my shoulders as I reach for the first book we need to read for our assignment.

“Yes, they did work well together, and I’m very grateful you care about me enough to try to drag my grades up.” He says, grinning at me. I do notice how he’s tucked the ankle of the leg with the blue mark behind his other leg, effectively hiding any blue poking out but I don’t say anything about it and just smile.

“Well, you are a truly amazing boy, so I’m just trying to help our teachers see that,” I say, leaning in to give him a quick kiss. I pull back to see him blushing slightly, and I smile sweetly at him. We’ve only been together for a few months, so he’s not entirely used to my quick affectionate gestures yet.

We study for a while, but then my phone pings with an unusual sound. I pick it up and see the Super Alert on it, realising I need to save the city. Again.

“Leo, so sorry, but my mum just texted to say I need to get back home.” I say, gathering my things and shoving the books into the bag I had brought.

“Oh, ok. Um, see you in school then?” He asks, looking slightly disappointed, but trying to smile at me. I give him a bittersweet smile back and kiss him lightly on the forehead.

“Yes, don’t worry, I’ll see you at school. Bye!” I say, rushing out of the door. As soon as I’m out of sight, I press the button on my watch, specifically designed by Arthur from the next-over city’s Justice Team. In a second, my normal clothes had transformed into my bubble-gum-coloured super-suit, the big, funky-looking ‘P’ on my front sparkling with an ethereal glow. I quickly look around, making sure no one is around, and then I fly to the end of the corridor, swiftly opening the window and then flying out into the city. 

I drop my bag off in one of the many ‘drop spots’ around the city, a shoot that would carry my bag to the SuperStars base. What a silly name, but you can’t exactly choose what league of supers you join. I zipped off to find where the problem was, but it wasn’t hard, thanks to the big cloud of smoke that was billowing out of a building on the left side of the city. My copper-coloured hair was whipping around my face as I flew, and surprisingly, it didn’t actually clash with my supersuit.

As I approached the burning building, I could see a few flashes of bright colours. A quick flash of green, a brief view of red. I flew into the fray, using my mind-reading powers to figure out who was there and if they were good or bad.

Dang it! Come back here, you slimy, poison-spitting freak! I recognised the mind-vioce of ElectroBoy, the red-suited, high-strung, electricity-shooting ‘wonder boy’ of the city. Then, a more… sinister mind-voice.

Ha! Stupid ball of friction! He’ll never stop me or the Master! Our numbers are too great. Then suddenly, inside of whoever’s mind that was, a new, more faint voice spoke.

Hit the boiler with poison, Acid. That’ll make all the pipes explode. I will send another of mine to help you with all the excess water. I frowned but focused on ElectroBoy’s mind-voice.

Hey, it’s me, Psyche. What’s going on? I ask, trying to see through the thick cloud of smoke that’s now filling the whole building.

There’s this new villain, calls himself ‘Acid’. Says he’s got a ‘master’ or something, who’s going to send more villains all over the place. I need to get this guy under control, but I can’t touch him. He burns like acid, and he’s got this weird glowing green mark on his face. I squint through the smoke, trying to find ElectroBoy. It’s impossible to see any further than my hand, and I have to grab my cape and pull it over my mouth to be able to breathe properly.

I can’t see you, but Acid’s headed to the boiler if you know where that is. I can’t see anything, what about you? I respond, almost flying into a jagged wall, bricks and wires sticking out of it. Then, suddenly, I hear something.

“Oi! ElectroBoy! Be prepared to meet your doom!” The voice is weird but slightly familiar at the same time. It’s all distorted, as if it were being spoken through water. Then, a faint, blue glow reaches through the smoke, and I gasp as little streams of water come floating up from below me, and some of the fires that have made their way up the building are smothered. I suddenly feel the building shake with another explosion, water shooting around everywhere. Then it all seemed to stop and start floating up to where the blue glow was coming from. Then, the smoke clears a bit, and I can finally see what is causing the blue glow. It’s a giant water bubble, and inside…. I don’t believe it. Inside, there’s a… thing with a fish tail, like a mermaid, but that tail was glowing a bright blue colour. The water is all flying up to join the bubble, and as I get a bit closer, I try to see the top half, which lets me know it’s a guy, but I can’t really see the face. The bubble descends, the smoke clearing away from it by some unknown force, and the blue glow reveals ElectroBoy being held by Acid, his face twisted in a grimace as he tries to twist away from Acid. 

I suddenly realise that I’m gonna need backup. I click the button on my watch, the one that sends out a backup call to all the other supers. I notice a slight, pink glow from my arm and I suddenly remember the little mark I had gotten from the factory explosion. That spot was starting to glow. I tried to ignore it, but my arm was feeling tingly, like it was going numb, but without the feeling leaving it. Then I decide to dive in. I swoop down, trying to use my super voice.

“Hey! You two! Let ElectroBoy go, and then we can talk about this!” I say, trying to look commanding and confident despite my growing worry. This causes Adcid and the other guy to look at me, the green mark on Acid’s face glowing and casting a weird shadow on the rest of his face, effectively hiding what he really looks like. As I get closer, the blue one shoots a ball of water at me, but I doge it swiftly, dropping a few feet and landing on a half-there ledge, looking around me for loose bricks. I find some and use my mind to scoop them up, letting them float around my head menacingly. But for some reason, one of them is not obeying me. It starts to wobble, then it drops, right at the same time the tingling in my arm gets stronger.

I quickly throw the other bricks with my mind, one of them shooting towards the blue guy, the other two falling towards ElectroBoy and Acid. Acid had to duck, giving ElectroBoy a chance to get free, immediately encasing Acid in an electric field, effectively incapacitating him. Then he shoots a bolt of electricity at the blue guy, but he just sends out a ball of water, the water absorbing the electricity and shooting it back at him. He dives out of the way at the same time I feel my powers of flight diminishing, the tingling in my arm now reaching a climax. I try to reach out with my mind, but all I can hear is my own heavy breathing and the sounds of destruction around me as the two boys fight.

“You will never defeat Water with electricity, I am too fluid for that!” The blue guy says, apparently Water. ElectroBoy just keeps shooting electricity at him, not really able to do much else.

Meanwhile, I sag against the crumbling wall, feeling weak and dizzy, noticing the mark on my arm is glowing even brighter now. Again, I recognise the voice of Water, but the water around him is warping his voice, making me second-guess every hopeful match to the voice’s owner. Then, suddenly, Water lets most of the water around him gush towards ElectroBoy and me, pinning us both to whatever surface is behind us. Because there is less water between Water and us now, when he speaks again and turns towards me, I gasp in recognition.

“No one will conquer Water and Acid! And certainly not their Master! We will rule this city, and no one will stop us!” Water said grandly, his mer tail swishing back and forth in the thin layer of water surrounding him. I just stare in shock. I know who Water is. It’s Leo, my boyfriend.