SUPERWORLD

François III

François stood up in fury.

"I was there! I saw her as often as I could!  It wasn't as much as I would have liked, I'll admit, I did miss a few birthdays but what man hasn't? I wasn't the perfect father, but no one is! Doesn't she see I was trying my best?" François protested. Grand-Pére was going to say something, but François' phone began to ring. He saw that it was from Élizabeth, and his heart skipped a beat before answering. "Lizzy? Mon cœur?" He answered.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She shouted.

"Whatever do you mean, darling?" François asked.

"Françoise came home crying, she's inconsolable! She says you came and visited her at school today?" Lizzy growled.

"Uhm, yes? Didn't I tell you?" François answered.

"You did tell me, and I told you not to!" She shouted again.

"Mon cœur, a father knows what is best for his relationship with his daughter, I saw no harm in it so I—"

"That's the problem, François! You don't ever see the harm, you weren't here all the times she cried for you and now you just expect her to accept you because, what? You came into some money? Françoise doesn't need money, she needs a father, and it's obvious you can't provide that." Lizzy seethed. François was speechless, he couldn't believe his ears.

"I love her, and I love you. I have since always. I just couldn't help you back then. I can now." François explained. Lizzy gave an exasperated sigh.

"François, you beautiful idiot, I haven't loved you for a very long time, and your daughter never had the chance to. Sometimes I wonder if that's such a bad thing, if she did, she'd have to learn like I did that you never change. I have a shift in three hours, so I'm going to sleep. Goodbye."

"Lizzy, you don't have to-" but she hung up. François looked at his phone, only a dark reflection stared back now.

He looked at Grand-Pére, the old man just shook his head. François charged up the stairs to his room, he threw himself on the bed and pounded his fists against the feather pillows. He slipped on the silk sheets in his anger and was forced to lay down. He wept into the soft fabric.

Why? Why?! I did everything I could! I was a loser before this power! Of course I wasn't there, I had to hide my shame. Now I'm like a god and I give them the world, and they still don't want me? Oh, what a cruel world! He lamented. Little girls are supposed to see their fathers as superheroes, not as useless bums. Can I blame her? She's never had the opportunity to see me do anything heroic.

François hopped up out of bed.

That's it! Françoise has never seen me do anything heroic! Françoise loved the old tales of the masked adventurers and their vigilante war against injustice. Like 'L'Espadon' of Marseille, with his sword and stupid mask!

And François charged to the boxes at the back of the attic and found a small poster of the vigilante swordsman, the pointed nose and fish-like frill at the top of the mask gave François a laugh.

All I have to do is be a hero in front of her and she will love me again and Élizabeth will come back to me! Only, I'll do it my way, no stupid mask to cover up this beautiful face. Plus, I have a superpower, no? So what's to say I can't be a superhero!

The Artist tossed the poster aside and began pacing as he formulated his plan.

A hundred thousand times better than L'Espadon or any other powerless idiot from Françoise's stories. I will dream crimes and then stop them before they happen, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. What will be my hero name? Crime-Stopper? Time-Stopper? François the Great? I'll need a costume as well. Mon dieu, being a hero is a lot of work! But first, to stop a crime, I'll need to dream of one.