บท 5: Chapter 5
[MC POV]
° Reginald Vel Johnson Highschool
Another day, another cycle of classes to go through until finally, it is lunchtime. Again.
I was walking alone, as Madison had gotten sick over something she ate last night or some such. I couldn't really make out what she was saying under the heavy influence of heavy snot and fever.
Although, I have to admit, it was a high possibility with her appetite for sushi and rare-cooked meat despite being clearly not built for it. If you could call 'rare' cooked at all.
Hot take. I like mine 'well-done', never liked sushi and rare meat myself, but to each their own poison.
Anyway, I was walking along the long hallway to reach the canteen to find my brother when I suddenly felt someone poking the back of my right arm.
To my surprise, it was actually Eve of all people.
She gave me a smile, "Hi! Your name is...Mark, right?" she asked.
"Uh, no. I'm Matt, short for Matthew. I'm Mark's twin brother"
The line was used before on many occasions, both friends and neighbors alike. I never really saw or understood what was so difficult about telling us apart, but that was my bias in living with someone I share about a 95% facial similarity with I suppose.
She cringed, "Oh, sorry. I thought-"
"It's fine. I get that a lot. It's a twin thing"
"Yeah...I suppose you do" she took a weird pause and she looked over my face, "Does he also have blue eyes?".
"No, just me. I take heavily after my dad, while Mark takes after mom. Though my cooking skills is purely a gift from my lovely mother"
She giggled for a short minute but her expression darkened soon after. A sleugh of images came to mind as I wondered what happened.
I saw a red-headed older woman wearing an apron, standing above a simmering pan with tears streaking down her cheeks. Another was the same woman standing with a little girl in front of a mirror, smiling widely but with a hint of sadness in there as well. And lastly the same woman again ,but older than before, sitting by herself on a coach in the dark. A small plastic covered tray of a cold meal sat not far from her.
There it was again, this...mental thing.
"Well, I'm glad I found you. I was looking for you specifically. I was hoping you'd hand something to Madison for me? I borrowed something from her a week ago and I wanted to return it now but she's not here" she asked.
She and Madison knew each other? There's a surprise.
"Sure, I'll be passing by her house later anyway. What is it?"
"Thank you!" she smiled and fished something out of her bag. She turned her head back to me and gave me a discerning look.
I perked up an eyebrow at her actions, which she took some kind of meaning from when she dragged me to the side and whispered.
"I can trust you, right Matt?" she asked.
An odd thing to ask someone she barely knew but, "Sure. You can trust me".
"Don't tell anyone about this, okay?"
"I won't" the line of questioning was making me uncomfortable for some reason.
She gave me a hesitant nod and then handed something to me, quickly shoving it to the hidden side of my chest. It felt oddly like some kind of round egded elongated piece of plastic. I glanced to my side and saw what it was, realizing why she was so cautious.
I gave Eve a look of confusion and embarrassment as I hastily kept the 'object' into my bag, "What the hell? Why are you bringing something like this to school!??"
"I was going to hand it to her, but she's absent. Then I remembered her talking about you, and so I went to find you" she said, a blush on her cheeks "She told me you were gay, so I decided to trust you".
I honestly didn't know what to say, but I did feel definitely ticked off from the truth she dropped on my head. The situation called for me to do something I didn't want to just to preserve the girl's dignity.
"You are gay, right?" she asked.
So...I nodded. Promising myself to apologize for this later, with Mady in tow.
She gave me a hug and smiled embarrassingly.
"Great! I better go, don't want to be late. The line for the Lasagna Special is terrible around this time. See you soon, Matt" she waved her hand and then proceeded to walk away.
Well...that was an interesting interaction.
****
I was finally in the Canteen, but I was hardly alone.
Mark wanted some alone time to brood over the recent smack of reality my Dad gave him earlier today. So I was left to deal with his overly enthusiastic gay friend.
I admit to being put off by the guy as he kept talking about a guy he knew on some college campus as few hours away from here.
I pretty much just nodded along and feigned listening to him while I thought about something else.
And then, William dropped a rather interesting topic out of nowhere.
"Hey, did you know that Mark got into a fight with today just a few minutes ago?" he said.
"He what now?"
Was he insane? Fighting with a regular human with our kind of strength is basically manslaughter.
"Yeah. Todd came up to us from who knows where and was like totally ready to kick Mark's ass. I think he was still sore about the time YOU beat him up" Willaim explained.
"Is Todd still alive?"
William was taken aback by the question, "Uhm...yeah?".
"So Mark didnt fight back?"
"Oh he did, but not in the way you did. Todd made these weird threats and was like all over Mark's personal space right then, but Mark just stood his ground and was like 'hit me'. That part was insane though, like something out of one of those Space whatever comics he keeps buying" he said.
"...And!?"
"What do you think happened next?" William snidely asked.
Oh my god.
"William. Please, if youre going to tell a story, make sure to complete it in one go. Especially considering it's ABOUT MY BROTHER"
"Alright, alright. Sheesh" he, or is it she?, rolled his eyes.
"Basically, Todd did as Mark told him to. He punched him, right in the chest. Then to the face, then to the stomach, and then...wait I think that was it. Yeah... But Mark was fine though, like totally unhurt" William explained.
"So nothing bad happened?"
"No. But I'd watch out for him if I were you, he had this...intense angry expression on his face from the first moment I saw him this morning. He said 'I need to punch somebody' before walking away" Willaim added.
Oh no. Not good.
I didnt even listen to some other thing Willaim was about to say when I got out of my seat and went to find my brother.
He was a pretty swell and calm guy, but if was so angry to the point of saying that then he must be out looking for trouble right about now.
Walking along the hallways, I suddenly caught a glimpse of an orange silhouette flying up and away from the where the boy's bathroom was located.
I remember that orange color, it was from one of those stupid jackets he bought at Target a year before our birthday. Whatever Mark was after, it clearly wasn't anywhere near the school.
So it's fine.
But still, should I go after him or should I just let him be?
After a good amount of consideration, I decided to follow him. Finding a blindspot among yhe schools areas and flew away and towards the direction he was heading.
Manhattan.
But first, I needed a good disguise.
****
While I was busy cruising along the air above Manhattan, looking out for any signs of that very stupid combination of color Mark was wearing, I had unexpectedly found myself in front of Dad of all people.
He stood there in the air with his arms crossed, blocking my path.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"O-oh, hello Omni-Man. I'm just--"
"I know it's you, Matt" Dad interrupted.
"...Okay"
"If you were trying to hide your identity, it would've been better if you changed into something like a costume or anything else. Not the clothes you wore to school today" he continued.
"I got it, Dad. I was in a rush"
"You? In a rush? To do what?" Dad asked, again.
"...Following Mark"
"What? Mark's here too? Why?" he asked.
"I just saw him fly in this direction and lost him for a bit, but I'm sure he's here. I got worried about him, he hasn't been in a good mood ever since...well since this morning. And when I saw him fly away from school, I knew he was gonna find something or someone to punch it out of"
Dad maintained this rigid look before he sighed.
"Follow me" he said, turning around and flying away.
I followed behind him and asked, "I swear, Dad, once we find Mark I'll drag his ass back to school if I have to".
"We'll see" he simply said.
After 5 minutes of cruising around the area, we heard quite the commotion down in Harlem. We headed there promptly.
I don't know if it was part of our powerset or just the loudness of the sounds itself, but I could hear it from 2 blocks away.
And it sounded like something hard was hitting stone, and that stone somehow groaned like a human make would when experiencing pain, and a couple of walls crumbling and shaking on impact.
"I'll go ahead, Dad" I said before pushing myself forward.
"Wait-" I couldn't hear the rest as I was already above the scene of where the sounds were coming from.
I saw just as Mark carried and slammed a black man on a metal grate, flinging off what looked like pieces of white cement that apparently had come from the man's body.
The man rolled over the street, slamming against a car and turning it over accidentally. Mark clumsily rolled behind him.
I caught the car as well as Mark, safely keeping the passengers inside from a fatal flip over.
Mark saw me and quickly shrugged my arm away.
"You're welcome"
"I didn't need your help. I had it under control" he responded.
"Great use of the word 'had'. You lost it the moment you nearly gave everyone in this car a concussion"
"I didn't--"
"Knock it off, you two" Dad flew in, finally.
I shut my mouth and gently placed the upturned car back into the street, in the right orientation of course.
Mark dusted himself off and stared at him.
"You look ridiculous" Dad declared.
"Really?" Mark asked.
"What did you think? Orange and blue don't really match that well"
"Shut up, will you?" Mark snarled.
"Quiet. We'll talk about this somewhere else. Let's get out of here" Dad demanded as he flew off to the nearest rooftop.
"But what about this guy?" Mark pointed to the unconscious black guy.
"Leave him. He's knocked out anyway. The GDA will take care of him"
"I didn't ask you, I was asking Dad" he said, flying away before I could reply.
I shook my head and followed after them, leaving whoever it was on the street.
We landed on some 30-floor building's rooftop. Well, landing wasn't actually the right thing when it came to Mark.
He stumbled quite a few times before making a full landing.
I mean, to be fair, I wasn't particularly good at my powers just yet to boast but I could manage to control them to a greater degree. Yet I was still a newbie, all in all.
"Honestly, I think you might have skipped a few steps there, Mark" Dad said with his arms crossed and a very stern look on his face.
"Seemed to work out just fine" Mark retorted angrily.
"Seriously?"
"You did more damage down there than you needed to. That tells me youre not ready for this" Dad told him.
Mark clenched his jaw, and the next words that came out of his mouth were words coming from a place of hurt. And shame.
"Hit me" he said.
"What?" Dad asked, to clarify what he just heard.
"Did that guy hit you so hard in the face it scrambled your brain, Mark?"
"Hit me now" Mark repeated.
"Do it! I wasn't ready before. Now I am. I can take it. Come on!" Mark continued his taunt.
"I'm not gonna hit you" Dad stated.
"No ones hitting anyone anymore, Dad!" I flew in between them.
Mark grabbed my shoulder and pushed me away with all his strength.
"You'd never hit me before, okay? It scared me. It wasn't too much, I could take the pain. I'm strong" he then went on, not hiding the hurt he was feeling all day and just letting it all out.
"I know you are" Dad reassured him calmly.
"No, you don't!" but Mark was far from done expressing his anger. "I know you think I can't do this! Hit me, and let me prove you wrong! Please, Dad! Please just hit me".
"Oh, Son..." Dad relaxed his arms and spoke with tenderness in his voice.
"I'm strong enough, and I can do this! It's all I ever wanted for as long as I can remember. I wanna do what you do. I wanna be just like you" Mark damn-near cried at this point.
A wave of...weird feelings somehow washed over me, and I was damn certain that those feelings were coming from Mark.
Anger, Fear, Hope, Embarrassment, and Self-loathing.
"You will be, Son. You will" Dad took him into his arms and gave him a warm hug.
"Let me make this up to you" Dad then said.
"Follow me" Dad flew up.
We followed after him.
In silence we flew out of the city and somewhere remote, outside of Manhattan and into some rural areas with a lot of small family-owned business.
"You're taking us shopping?" I asked, a bit sarcastically.
"I am. Sort of" Dad replied shortly.
He dove towards a small patch of woods behind the chain of stores and motioned us to follow him into the back of some...tailor shop I think it was.
Hmmm...is he?
He pressed some part of the store's wall which revealed a small hidden hatch, behind which was a rather sophisticated high-tech input panel. A few types along its keys and a second later a section of the wall opened up.
A secret hiding place of some kind...under a tailor shop.
Now I have a good feeling about this.
The opening led us to a metal staircase that led to a well-lit large space, filled with glass display cases where mannequins were wearing some colorful clothes.
Or Costumes to be precise. Superhero Costumes.
Oh my God, we're getting costumes!
In that space was an old man, who greeted Dad with a smile.
"Were you seen?" the old man asked.
"Who are you talking to?" Dad shrugged.
"Sorry, sorry. Just need to ask" the old man chuckled.
"Whoa..." Mark was hovering above the ground, eyes darting all over the room. I elbowed his thigh and motioned him to float down.
The old man saw this and laughed, "Prom dresses by day, indestructible super suits by night. I'm Art Rosenbaum, kids. Pleasure to finally meet you two.
I've heard so much about you" he held out a hand to us.
"You too" Mark took it, scratching the back of his head. An all too obvious sign of a white lie.
"Wait, super suits? Am I getting a costume? Do you make Dad's costumes?" Mark soon realized.
"ARE WE getting a costume, you mean. It's pretty obvious, Mark. Seriously"
"They're quick ones, your kids" this Art guy shrugged.
"I can't have either of you, running around in your pajamas all the time" Dad answered.
"Oh, man! *laughing* Awesome!" Mark jumped to celebrate.
And that is how we finally took our first steps to becoming full-fledged superheroes. Getting our supersuits.
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