Supers Wear Spandex *third book to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 1 - You're driving me crazy

"When the human mind has faced tremendous emotional pain, it has no choice but to protect itself. You've taken bits and pieces of your surroundings and created an alternate universe where you feel safe and secure. Clark... in a world where you truly have no power, you chose to give yourself superpowers."

~ Dr. Hudson

When Xander opened his eyes there was a split second where he couldn't remember where he was. A sweet moment where he thought he was waking up in his own bed in his own apartment with the knowledge that he was perfectly sane.

And then he saw the perfectly pristine white ceiling above his head and his heart sank.

He was no longer the man he thought he was yesterday.

Or, at least Xander thought he had once been someone different.

Before yesterday Xander Mendez thought he was the superhero Momentum, running at the speed of sound and saving lives. He lived in a world of the impossible. A world full of people with extraordinary abilities. Before yesterday Xander was exactly everything he ever wanted to be.

But, now?

The villain he had met inside his house must've done something to trap him in an alternate universe or something. It was the only plausible explanation. She set her shadows on him and he all of a sudden woke up in a mental institution? That villain sent him here, he was sure of it.

This place, wherever he was, had no extraordinary people. It had no villains or heroes, at least in the super sense of the words. Here humans never evolved superpowers. Here supers didn't exist.

All of the other patients treated Xander like he was the one who was crazy. Him. He wasn't the one who had multiple personality disorder, or schizophrenia, or manic depression. He was perfectly normal save for the superpowers that had somehow disappeared.

Xander Mendez didn't belong here.

It didn't take long yesterday, when he woke up, to figure out that wherever he was, the people weren't strangers. Kids from school, teachers, substitutes, the neighborhood association, they were all with him in this strange place. Patients and nurses alike were familiar in one way, shape, or form.

The most noticeable familiar face was Mera Deauxma.

Or, Dr. Deauxma.

Xander had felt her die in his arms back in the real world, his world. He'd stared straight into her hollow, dead eyes and seen no life left there. The girl he'd loved for years on end, stiff and broken in his grasp.

Now his girlfriend was alive and apparently his therapist.

(Xander didn't want to know how many doctor-patient rules that broke.)

Mera looked maybe a couple of years older than he remembered her, but she was still the girl he could vividly remember falling in love with. He could remember the feeling of holding her hand in his and cradling her in his arms. How could he have made all of that up?

There were glimpses of other more familiar faces as well. He thought he saw Ross Gustin as he rounded a corner, and there was a flash of striking silver hair as he passed a room yesterday.

Wherever the villain had sent him, whatever she had done to him, it seemed that Xander wasn't without familiar faces.

There was an uncomfortable feeling of someone's eyes on him, so Xander turned to face the bed that had been empty when he went to bed before. In it sat a very stoic and stone-faced John Washington.