Mr. Terrific (Superhero BoyxBoy)

Issue #1: "Now You See Me, Now You Don't"

While everyone else in the room had already stopped paying attention to Harding and started texting and playing angry birds on their iPhones, I had kept a small eye on the professor, or more so, the ticking time bomb that was hugging him and losing digit after digit by the passing second.

000:000:000:000:04:36

Years Months Days Hours Minutes Seconds

“You kids don’t understand what it means to be a teacher.” Harding rumbled to himself, pointing fingers at random students as that ticking sound started to echo a bit more loudly in my ears and those numbers started unwinding down at a pace faster than I had previously noticed. “Day in, day out with you snotty, privileged little brats who wouldn’t know work or a job if it slow danced with you.”

000:000:000:000:04:06

“It’s time I teacher got the last laugh! It’s time a teacher one the battle! It’s time someone rose up! Rose up and-and-and, crushed you little apathetic adolescents who can’t even read a single chapter of one damn book because its soooo long and soooo hard and soooo boooring” he whined to mock us, and if my life wasn’t in some form of danger, I’d be honestly offended by the uninspired acting. He picked up the blue covered hard back text book that seemed heavier somehow in his hands and dangled it in front of our faces. “Try writing a book, you waste of semen and then tell me what’s long, hard and boring.”

000:000:000:000:03:56

“Someone needs to do something. He’s not letting us go.” Alexia Markwood brightly remarked from behind me, and I held back the intense urge to thank her for her keen observation skills.

But she was right. Someone had to do something before that bomb lost anymore numbers. We needed someone to save us. We needed a hero. And not just any kind of hero. We needed one of the masked variety.

Other cities had other things to define them. New York was The Big Apple; Chicago was The Windy City  and Detroit was The Motor City. Ginger Valley was known as The Super City. 

People didn’t just come to Ginger Valley just for the warm hospitality of the people. Ginger Valley, Indiana was known for its masked men and women in tights who soared through the sky and sat perched up on buildings at night to watch the city. Who fought off malfunctioning robotic men who tried to enslave the human race and masked capers who planned to destroy he city for one reason or the other. We weren't very abundant in coffee, or oil or salt, but we had an excess and rich supply of superheroes. That’s right. Actual tights wearin, cape danglin, sky flyin and laser beam eyein superheroes. And they protected our city from the ones who tried to destroy it.

“And they need to do it fast.” Sherry Bishop, Alexia’s best friend noted; she obviously shared the same brain power as well. Still, they weren’t wrong. We needed a superhero and fast.

I groaned internally, fully aware that, I may well had to be the one to put an end to this. I may not have my own super suit, but I possessed the…talent to do so. The problem was, if you were a superhero, you weren’t supposed to reveal your secret identity under any circumstance whatsoever. I was banned from using my powers in public for that reason. That and the fact that my parents told me that I wasn’t ready for it.

But one look at the clock – 000:000:000:000:01:59 – and it was clear that desperate times called for desperate measures. And so, I watched Mr. Harding and followed his pattern of footsteps.

Step, step, step, turn around. Step, step, step, turn around.

I took a deep breath. Step. Closed my eyes. Step. Inhaled again. Step. Exhaled harshly. Turn around.