Superman Stole My Tights

Beginnings

"We can only blame ourselves for all the crime and violence today. We removed all the phone booths and now Superman has nowhere to change,"-Unknown

Ten years ago, a strange chemical mixture known as 'Haven' was created. Formulated by the top scientists at Focal City Labs it was designed to be able to cure any disease, and prevent any future infection. It was meant to be a miracle. Yet it was a concept, and no where near the stage of experimentation when it was stolen. This criminal who took it-this villain, his motive remains as secret as his identity to this day. But shortly after Haven's theft a disease unlike any other began to spread through the city. It only effected certain children under the age of 10, and scientists scrambled to find the cause. They did not have to look very far. Haven had been released into the air, polluting the lungs of everyone in the city, and causing intense illness into certain minors. 

This chemical, one meant to save, was now killing innocent children everyday.

It is speculation that the thief of the chemical had simply dropped the vial containing it, and when it was exposed to the air it evaporated into it. Others say that this was no accident, and that the thief knew exactly what would happen when released. This disease was quickly contained in the city, and thankfully many children were immune to this sickness. But for the one's who weren't...life was a tragedy. The first stage of symptoms were all the same: migraines, coughing out blood, amnesia. But each child had begun sprouting additional, diverse, symptoms.

A boy who became so dehydrated that his skin began to flake.

A girl who's brain became dysfunctional.

They were all different, and all terrifying.

And then I got sick.

The head aches came first, the constant feeling that someone was drilling into my head and scrambling it followed me constantly. When I had complained about it to my dad, he had refused to believe I had the disease, just told me to take some common medicine and get more sleep. But then the coughing came. My sister had been barely three years old when she walked in my room and saw me being hacking out blood. She had cried for hours. My dad took me to the hospital after that, and it was confirmed. I had Haven. My dad visited everyday, and kept visiting even after the amnesia began and I couldn't remember my own name, let alone his. I was six. I was beyond scared. Meanwhile, a cure that had once seemed so far out of reach was beginning to form only days after I had gotten sick. Before my symptoms could progress, and I would be forced to deal with whatever next stage of symptoms that were formed for me, I was injected with a cure. It almost seems too easy now, looking back at it. My memories came back, my head stopped feeling broken, and my blood started staying inside of my body. I had been saved, as did the fifty other children infected. But in the months it took to find this cure, 27 children had died. My dad had been one of the scientist that had started the Haven project, but he was also one of the three that had formed a cure. For a while I didn't know whether I should feel ashamed or proud.

Soon, I decided on neither.

I decided just to be okay, just to live on, just to forget everything-because what else could a scared six year old do? And life went on as normal. Until it didn't. Soon, people began displaying new kinds of symptoms.

The first was ten year old Lea Smith. She had Haven only a few weeks before, and had been the first to be cured. She started flying. Robert Green was next, 4 and also recently cured, could turn invisible. All around, the kids once infected by Haven had started becoming Superheroes. Not all of them of course, 17 year old Maya Crane never had anything special happen to her, neither had I. But fast forward ten years and we now live in a new world. One made out of Superheroes and close to no crime. There have been some bad seeds-kid who chose to use their powers for evil rather than good. But the positives have out weighed the negatives, and the hero's always prevail.

They're Focal City's superheroes. They're our form of celebrities. And every now and then, they're speakers at high school assemblies.

My name is Rowan Hayes.

And this is where my story starts.