JUSTIN: Thursday night

"I don't fuckin’ believe this!" I shouted at the cashier. "Fuck this town, man! I'm goin’ back to Jersey and startin’ up the business again. Shit, I could beat the shit out of little kids in Red Bank and still make myself a profit!"

I looked around. Everyone in the store was looking at me. They all applauded.

"That was great," the cashier said. "Jason Mewes would be proud."

"So I get my 13% off?"

The cashier rolled his eyes. "You know, since I'm kind enough to give you discounts for Jay impressions, you could return the favor by giving me a more rounded percent to take off you freakin’," he looked down at what I was buying, "Hellboy, Seeds of Evil graphic novel. Evil, hell, 13, I get. Wiseass." He punched numbers into the register. "$13.74."

"Pay the good man," I said, in another Jay voice, to Eric, who was impersonating Silent Bob. He gave the cashier money and waited for change. He got it, and we left. We drove back to campus and went to the cafeteria for dinner. Our friends, Aaron, Carolyn, and Amber were waiting for us. They all looked unhappy. We were obviously late. Eric continued the Silent Bob impression. Amber gave me angry eyes.

"You said you'd be gone twenty minutes max. We've been here since five thirty."

"Well," I began, "we would've been back on time, but, you know the guys at the comic store, they just begged me to do my Jay, and wouldn't let me leave ‘til I did, right man?"

Eric nodded. Amber continued to stare.

"You know," I started, "we could be eating now if you didn't have to waste time yelling at me."

"I'm gonna have to go with Justin on this one," Aaron said.

"Yeah," added Carolyn, "then we can eat and yell at Justin." That said, we proceeded into the cafeteria. We all got our food and sat down.

"So did you get another Elektra book?" Carolyn asked.

"He must've," said Aaron. "Why else would he be late?"

"Hellboy," I replied.

"Does that mean you're leaving Elektra for a guy demon?" Eric asked.

"Fuck you."

"Watch the language," a voice from behind them said. I turned around to see Todd, a frat boy we all hated. Todd disliked us too, and annoyed the hell out of us whenever he saw us.

"Fuck you, Todd," Eric said.

"And get a real fuckin' name," I added.

"Oooh, are the losers jealous?" Todd said. "What's wrong? Did another girl reject one of you? Don't worry; I'll probably fuck her this weekend."

"God," Carolyn said. "Go away, your breath reeks of beer."

"You know you want me," he said as he walked away.

"Well, I'm finished" Carolyn said. "That breath took away my appetite."

We spent the rest of the night watching movies and doing anything else that wasn't homework. Finally, at eleven, I turned in.

"I'm out," I said. "I got a chemistry lab at nine."

************************************************************

JUSTIN: Friday morning

The next morning, I rolled out of bed and walked to my chemistry class. Once there, I listened to my teacher's inane droning get drowned out by the construction work being done on the roof of the building. Finally it all stopped.

"Any questions?" the teacher asked. There were none. "Okay," he continued, "begin, and I'll be at my desk if there's any problems."

"So what are we doing?" I asked my friend/lab partner Megan.

"I take it you didn't sleep last night. Again," she said. "You should probably see a doctor. Before you overdose on Nyquil."

"No problem there. I ran out a week ago. You're welcome to come join me tonight."

"You want me to sleep with you again, ask me out. Hell, ask me out, I'll do more than lie next to you listening to you snore for ten hours."

Suddenly, something fell through the ceiling of the room. It landed on the table in front of Megan and I, shattering the beakers of chemicals. Glass and various chemicals sprayed into my face. Everything went black.

***********************************************************************

CAROLYN: Friday 10:15 AM.

With my classes done for the day you'd think I'd be thrilled that the weekend had finally arrived, but this was not a normal weekend. I ran back to my room after class to grab my stuff. See I didn't have another class, but I did have a track meet that was seven hours away, but that would be the least of the things that would be strange about this weekend.

Any way, I headed back to my room to grab my stuff for the trip. Normally, my roommate would be there too, since she was also on the track team, but like I said this weekend was anything but normal. She was at some conference in another state, so I was left alone.

My clothes and uniform were packed in my duffle bag. I emptied my backpack of the books from my last class. In their place, I put my CD player, CDs, and my collection of comic books.

"This should keep me entertained. I don't know if I can take seven hours of bad movies and discussions about which American Idol contestant is hotter," I muttered under my breath.

I was writing a couple of last minute emails to Amber and the guys reminding them where I was and that I wouldn't be back until some ungodly time in the morning on Sunday, when I heard the voices of some of the other track girls on the floor heading down the hall. The group walked passed my door, and headed down the stairs without even acknowledging my presence.

"Hello to you too," I said to the empty hallway. "I swear people don't even know I'm on the…CRAP!" I noticed the clock 10:52; I had to be at the bus by 11. I crammed an extra t-shirt in my bag, locked the door, and ran for the bus. I damn near killed myself as I flew down the stairs.

"God damn it," I wheezed, "I am not a runner, I'm a long jumper!"

I made it to the bus, out of breath, but on time. I loaded my duffle under the bus, took my backpack and climbed on board. As I made my way to the back of the bus I could hear two of the girls talking.

"No way, John Peter Lewis is so much hotter than John Stevens," one of the girls was saying.

"Oh please, John Stevens is adorable…"

“And so it begins,” I thought, rolling my eyes in disgust. Thank God I didn't have to hear the rest of that conversation.

"This is going to be a LONG weekend," I said to myself as I grabbed a seat by the window. I put the soundtrack to Into the Woods in my CD player, and retreated to my comic books.

"Oh well, on the bright side, when you have no friends, you have more room," I muttered as I sprawled out across two seats and settled in for the trip.

I don't know what it is honestly. It's not that the other girls on the team don't like me. It's more that they aren't aware that I even exist. Not that it really matters to me. I have a group of friends that do appreciate my eccentricities. Unfortunately, they weren't on the team so this weekend I was going to be alone.

************************************************************************

JUSTIN: I woke to a bright light in my eyes and a lot of different voices.

"Will he be ok?"

"Justin, can you hear me?"

"Everybody, please back away and give him some space."

"TURN THE FUCKING LIGHT OFF!" I shouted. Everyone jumped back. I sat up and covered my eyes with my hands. "What happened?" I asked.

"The floor above us collapsed. You got hit in the face with some glass and chemicals. We think it may have gotten into your eyes. Now, please, put you hands down, and let me take a look." I put my hands down. I could see just fine, except for the spots caused by the light. I assumed the medic was the one who was talking to me. She pulled my eyelids open and looked in them.

"Can you see anything?" she asked.

"Yeah. Spots."

The medic looked some more, and then did the same to my other eye. The spots started to fade. I could see fine. Well, the room seemed brighter, but I had been out for a while. I felt pain in my face. Must've been cut by the glass, I thought. Finally, the medic let go of my face.

"He's fine," she said. She turned to me, "You're very lucky. A piece of glass stopped about a millimeter from a major nerve in your face. A bit further and your face might've been paralyzed."

"Uh, thanks," I replied. I reached up to touch my face. The medic stopped me.

"Careful," she said. "You just barely avoided needing stitches, so watch that you don't break the cuts open any more."

She left after that. The room destroyed, the teacher cancelled class. He had Megan walk me back to my dorm though. As soon as we walked out of the building, I screamed in pain and covered my eyes.

"Oh my god! Are you ok?" Megan freaked out.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said. I must've been out longer than I thought. The sun still seemed brighter than usual. I kept my head down with my hand over my eyes the rest of the way to the dorm.

"Are you gonna be ok?" Megan asked me again when we got there.

"Yeah, I just need to lie down for a while."

"Well, I'm going to e-mail your other professors and tell them you won't be in class."

"Thanks."

After she left, I passed out on my bed. It felt good to have my eyes closed.

***********************************************************************

CAROLYN: Friday afternoon

The bus ride was uneventful. After 5 hours of movies that I could care less about, we finally pulled over. We were stopping at another college, not our final destination, mind you, just a place to get out, stretch, and get in a pre-meet workout before the big day. As I climbed out of the bus, my coach pulled me aside.

"I want you to get in a good workout today," She said. "Especially work on staying low out of the blocks. You can defiantly pick up some time on your start."

My coach is a nice lady, and this was her way of telling me that my 100-meter dash times were pathetic, but like I said I'm not a sprinter. The only reason I was even doing the hundred was to improve my speed for jumping.

"Alright," I said, as I headed to catch up with the rest of the team, but she stopped me.

"By the way," She said, "I got a bunch of these today. You never know, they might help." She gave me a little smile and forced something into my hand.

"Thanks," I said but she was already off correcting some other girls on their handoffs. I looked down at what she had given me.

MXP Energy Bars: Gives you the energy you need to get you going.

"Wow, I am pathetic," I said to myself. "Might as well, it has been a while since breakfast, and I'm starving."

I tore of the wrapper as I continued to the track. I tried it; it was like trying to chew through old shoe leather, and its flavor only added to this illusion.

"Oh man," I said as I choked down the bite, "this has got to be punishment for last week's meet." I crammed the rest of it in my mouth, and continued to chew it to no avail. "This is cruel and unusual."

I continued to work on the remains of the energy bar as I started my warm-up. With nothing better to do, I surveyed my surroundings. The track was pretty far from the main campus of the college. It was surrounded by open land save the row of trees that lined a hill across from the road we came in on. It was a beautiful, clear day. The weather was perfect with just a slight tail wind coming along the backstretch.

I finished my warm-up and started to stretch out. The rest of the team was either across the track working on getting their steps down for the jumps, or just milling around the finish line talking to the members of the guys' team. I checked my watch.

"Not enough time to get in run-throughs. I guess I probably should work on my starts," I thought. I changed into my spikes, grabbed a set of starting blocks, and started to set them in place. As I got my feet in place, I leaned back wiping the pieces of track from the palms of my hands. As I did so, I noticed the once perfectly clear sky was beginning to darken.

“Unusual weather we’re having ain’t it?” I said in my best Cowardly Lion impersonation, but as usual no one around to hear my comment.

“Everybody back to the bus,” I heard my coach say, “We’d better get going so we can beat the storm.”

“Might as well get at least the one start in,” I thought to myself. I started to go through the steps in my head. Runners take your mark. I set my fingers behind the starting line. Set. I lifted my body up onto my fingers, ready to spring from the blocks.

“Stay low. Lean forward. Drive the arms,” I kept repeating to myself

GO!

It happened so fast it was almost instantaneous. Just as I began to push out of the blocks, a bolt of lightning sliced through the air. It struck me and made its way through me and out my spikes through the blocks, and was absorbed by the rubber track.

I was propelled forward with the jolt of the blast. I crossed the finish line. I hadn’t meant to run this far but the momentum just carried me. When I turned around, it was the strangest sight. The group of people that had been standing around the finish was sprinting towards the start. As I stood at the finish line trying to figure out what had just happened, people started to gather around the blocks I had been using. Still trying to straighten things out in my head, I slowly walked to the gathering crowd.

“That cloud came out of nowhere.” I heard someone say.

“Holy Crap, check out those blocks, they’re sparking.” Someone else was saying.

I saw my coach start running over to the crowd. She made her way to the middle of the group.

“Is everybody OK?” she asked. “Was anybody using these when the lightning hit?”

“NO,” people started saying, “I don’t think so.”

“Nice to know how much I mean to people,” I thought, but I decided it best not to mention the fact that I had been using the blocks when lightning struck. I felt fine so best not to bring it up.

“Everybody on the bus,” my coach said again.

The crowd started to thin and began making their way to the bus. I sat down and started changing my back into my running flats.

“What just happened?” I muttered to myself. “I think I was just struck by lightning, but I’m in one piece and I didn’t even feel it.”

I finished tying my shoes, and then I happened to glance down at my spikes. What had once been brand new quarter inch spikes were now melted pieces of metal attached to the bottom of my shoes.

“What the HELL just happened!?” I shouted, but no one seemed to notice.

Still pondering the metal now fused to my shoes, I made my way back to my seat. I crammed the spikes into my bag, so no one could see and start asking questions that I didn’t have the answers to. I curled up, leaned my head against the window, and slept the rest of the way there.

***********************************************************

When we finally got to the hotel, I was assigned to a room with three other girls from the team. There wasn't much time to shower, so we just dropped our stuff off and headed back to the bus to get some dinner. Old Country Buffet: good food, lots of choices, which I was quite thankful for. I was famished. I don't think I had ever been so hungry in my life. I grabbed a plate and loaded it down with anything I could get my hands on. I took the heaping platter back to the room where the rest of the team was sitting.

"Wow, looks like someone's pretty hungry," I heard someone say behind me. It was Matt, a member of the guys' distance team. My roommate and some other people on the team had told me that he likes me. I was even asked if we were going out. He's a nice guy, but not one you can spend a lot of time around before you want to throw something at him.

"Starving," I said as I continued to shovel mashed potatoes into my mouth.

"Pretty weird that lightning today. You saw it didn't you?" He continued.

"No, I'm blind and didn't see the giant streak of light that nearly killed me," I thought. "Yeah, weird," I responded. "I'm going back up, you want anything?" I said trying to end the conversation.

"No. Man, you like inhaled that plate of food. I swear it was full a second ago," Matt said once again stating the obvious.

"Told you I was starving," I said and gave him a half smile as I headed back for food.

"I just devoured a huge plate of food and it doesn't feel like I ate a thing," I muttered as I waited for the man to carve some turkey.

After my sixth trip for food, I was finally starting to feel full. We got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. We were supposed to be in for the night, but that didn't stop my roommates.

"Hey you want to come?" one of them asked out of sheer obligation. "We're meeting some of the guys at the arcade across the street."

"Thanks," I said, "but I'll just hang out here. I want to shower and I have to change my spikes before tomorrow."

"Alright," they were saying as they headed for the door.

"Bye," I said, but they were all ready gone.

I picked up my backpack and emptied its contents on the bed. From the mess, I picked up my spikes.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" I thought to myself. I found a pair of pliers in the spike kit, one of the other girls was holding onto. I sat on the end of the bed trying to remove the melted mass from my shoe, but to no avail.

"This is just GREAT!" I shouted. "First, I have to spend my entire weekend away from my friends, then I'm struck by lightning, not that anyone even noticed, and now I can't get what's left of my spikes out of my FUCKING shoes!"

With my final words there was a flash of lightning and the power in the room dimmed and came back on.

"Ok," I said, still a little jumpy at the thought of another encounter with lightning, "what just happened? No way," I breathed, "that did not just come from me."

I looked around the room and among the contents of my backpack I found my answer: The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told. I picked up the book and started thumbing through the pages. This would explain a lot, like how I got to the other end of the track, without people seeing me get struck by lightning, or why I had just eaten the entire menu of Old Country Buffet and not exploded. I looked down at my hand. Tiny sparks were still traveling along my fingers.

"Looks like we have a new twist to an old favorite." I smiled as I thought about my new powers. "But in all the stories, there were some kind of chemicals involved, " I started to say. "Wait a second…" I ran to the pile and started rummaging through my mess. MXP Energy Bar.

"This must be it," I thought, “what ever this energy bar is supposed to do was just enhanced by the lightning. "This is so freakin' awesome." I looked down at my spikes, and an idea came to me.

"It should work, unless comic books have lied to me," I thought aloud. I grabbed my shoes and headed for the door.

Behind the hotel, where no one might happen to wander by, I put down my shoes.

"Let's see if I can do it again," I said. I started to concentrate. I focused on my spikes and let the sparks fly. A concentrated blast was sent at the metal fused to my shoe, and slowly it started to melt away. When the last of it dripped from the holes, I stopped.

"That was cool," I thought, "but I'd better get back upstairs before someone notices I'm gone." Less than a second later I was in my room screwing in quarter inch spikes, when the other girls came back in.

"We got busted," they told me, "coach found out and made us all come back. So what have you been up to?" They asked, not really caring about the answer.

"Nothing much," I said as I tried to stifle my smile.

************************************************************************

AARON: Friday night

I was bored because no one was around. It had been a hectic day. A roof collapsed on Justin during his chemistry class. He was ok, just sleeping it off for the night in his room. Eric was off doing his thing, whatever that is. Theatre stuff most likely. Carolyn was at a track meet in St. Louis, which really sucked. And usually when everyone else was gone, I’d go see Amber, but when I stopped by her room, she wasn’t there. She could have been in the bathroom or napping, but I was too restless to wait around, so I went to the beach, as I often do.

It was dark out. The sun had just set, and it was getting cool. That didn’t bother me though; I preferred the cold. As I was walking on the shore, I saw something glimmer in the water. It wasn’t just light from campus reflecting off of something. It was something glowing… glowing purple? I picked up some wire I found on the ground (such a dirty beach), and wrapped it around a stick to extend my reach. A genius invention if I do say so myself. Anyway, I got my makeshift hook around the object and dragged it to dry ground. It was so weird. It looked like a black rock that had a pulsing purple glow, and it was immediately dry when I picked it up. It felt warm, despite being in the cold water. I had never seen anything like it. Suddenly, the rock began to smoke, as if it was evaporating water off of it, but it didn’t feel that hot. Then the smoke got darker. Almost completely black. It didn’t quite rise like smoke. It just kinda spread like a fog. All coming from the central rock. It seemed to then cover my arm, and I began to tingle. Kinda like the feeling you get when your arm falls asleep, but…not… I began to feel weak at the knees, and I fell. I was sitting on my legs being covered by this… this darkness. The stars in the sky began to disappear, and the last thing I saw was the moon shrinking. Then it was dark. Pitch black.

*************************************************************

I didn’t know where I was, or what I was doing. I was still very disoriented from what had just happened. My eyes began to focus. I was in my room. Lying in my bed. “How the hell did I get here?” I thought to myself. It was dark in my room. I sat up in my bed and started rubbing my aching head. My body still had that tingling sensation. I opened my eyes and realized something. I couldn’t see my arm that I could feel on my head. All I saw was darkness. “What the hell?” I said out loud. I put my hands out in front of me. It took me a minute, but I began to see the shape of my hands in front of me, but they were black, totally black. I was trying to figure out how, or why, I was like this, and as I thought about my normal skin, the tingling sensation began to fade and my skin returned to normal. Weird….

I got up and turned on a light. My roommate was gone for the weekend, so walking around at 4 am was ok. I just kept staring at my hands. “The HELL was that rock?!” I yelled. I sat on my bed again. I looked up and down my arms. They looked normal. As I hunched over, still looking at my hands, I felt a weird feeling in my chest. I sat straight and rubbed my chest. Felt normal to the touch. I decided to take off my shirt and look at myself in the mirror. I did so, and what I saw shocked me. It was faint, but there was definitely a shape just under the skin on my chest. It looked like some strange marking. Then it hit me. There was a marking just like it on the rock I picked up. “No way,” I said. “No way magic’s real. It-it can’t be.” Magic was the only explanation I could think of. I mean, unless it’s some “alien technology” or something stupid like that. Ok, so that’s not as stupid as magic…but still. What else uses symbols and such to get a result? Since I have such a vast imagination, I figured what happened was that the rock was magic and it basically fused with my body, leaving the mark on my chest. A mark I’d have to hide. I decided to see what I could do, other than turn completely black. I was in a dark room at the time; I could have been seeing things. So, I concentrated on my hands. I pictured darkness coming out of them like thick smoke. As the image formed in my head, it began to happen! I was doing it! I willed it to happen. Then I pictured my hands turning into the darkness. They began to turn pitch black, and it spread up my arm. It spread until it covered my whole body. I stood up and looked in the mirror.

“Sweet.”

I could still kinda make out my face, I had just turned black. I concentrated harder, and I became so black that I could only see a silhouette of myself. “Wow, just like a shadow… I wonder…” I then walked up to the wall and it was as if I was going into the wall, but I only became two-dimension, like a real shadow. “Holy Shit! I’m like Peter Pan’s shadow.” I posed in the cliché Egyptian pose, just for kicks. Then I leaped from the wall and landed without a sound. “I’m as light as a shadow too. Awesome. I wonder what else I can do.” I began to think about cartoons. I decided to try some shape shifting. I could make myself 2D, why not into some shapes? I decided to start simple. I made a fist, and then the smoke-like darkness grew until I had a fist that was bigger than my head. “Sweet!” I yelled out. I then proceeded to turn my hand into a number of things including axes, mallets: typical cartoon stuff. “I’m like Venom or something, but cooler. Now, let’s try some advanced stuff.” I started to think about a staff in my hand. I always enjoyed using the bo staff as a weapon. I pictured it in my mind and stared at my hand. As I stared, something began to “grow” out of my hand. It extended until I made a fist and grabbed it. I had my own staff, and it was completely solid. I began swinging it around and hitting my bedpost lightly with it. I swung it near my desk and it hit a notebook that caused a pen to catapult towards me. I turned my head away, so it wouldn’t it my face, but I knew it’d hit my head. However, it didn’t. I felt an odd sensation, almost indescribable. I felt the pen go through me. Right through me! I’m not sure how, but apparently it’s a reflex. I spent the rest of the morning playing around with my powers. Turning into things, flattening against my wall, and throwing a bouncy ball against the wall so it bounces back at me to practice turning myself intangible.

The sun was rising and I was running out of ideas of things to make. Then an idea popped into my head. I always liked it when cartoon characters picked up a hole on the ground and used it on something else. So I used my fingers to make the shape of a circle, then I picked it up. “Hehe, it looks just like the holes from the cartoons.” I decided to stick my head in it to see what happened. I stuck my head in and I was looking out my door. “Holy shit!” I yelled, and I quickly pulled my head back in. It was 7 in the morning on a Saturday; I knew no one would be in the hall. “Did I just make a portal? An actual hole? This is insane! I wonder how far I can get to. Just concentrate on a place…Where to go, where to go… I’ll start off small. Outside!” I stood at my window and made another circle. I looked past the circle and I saw another circle down on the ground outside. I reached my hand into the hole and I saw it come out from the hole outside. “Whoa, that looks weird…” I pulled my hand out and turned around. The hole automatically closed. “Now to test distance. Where can I go where no one will see me? The beach sounds good enough. That’s where this all started.” I started to think about the beach, and the rocks, and the gentle sound of the water. I put my hands out, palms open, and a black oval the size of my body appeared. I walked through it. I felt the rocks under my feet and I almost screamed in joy. “It worked! Oh my god, it worked!”

Back in my room, I decided I should give it up for a while. I was tired, and I'd been up all night. I eventually crashed on my bed.

***********************************************************************

CAROLYN: Saturday morning

The meet the next day seemed to drag on forever. I was careful not to use my new found speed in either the hundred or the long jump, so that no one would figure out my secret. I got back to the bleachers where my bag was. It was getting colder out. Despite my multiple layers of t-shirts and my sweat pants, the wind was still getting to me. As I put on my sweatshirt, I heard someone calling my name.

"Carolyn, hey, how'd jumping go today? I saw your hundred. You looked good." It was Matt.

"Thanks. Jumping was fine. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but what can you do?' I answered.

He started relating to me how his race had been and how every other member of the guys' distance team had done. I was only half paying attention when all of a sudden he stopped.

"Hey check it out, over there you can see smoke. That explains the sirens," he said.

“Sirens?” I said, snapping out of my daze. “Well, I have to go cool down,” I said rather flustered as I pushed passed him. “I’ll talk to you later,” I shouted over my shoulder. When I was out of sight, I sped off in the direction of the billowing smoke.

“What am I doing?” I thought. “Even if I do have super powers what the hell am I going to do against a fire? I guess I’m going to find out.”

I reached the building in no time. It was a ten-story apartment building just outside downtown St. Louis. The fire department had already arrived, but there were a lot of people still inside the building, which was going fast.

“How do I get myself into these things?” I asked myself, and took off into the building. Clearing out the lower levels was easy. They were already pretty empty. I picked up a few of the stragglers and quickly carried them to safety. When I reached the top stories, things got exceedingly more difficult. As I ran up the last flight of stairs to make sure no one had gotten trapped on the roof, the stairs gave way underneath me.

“That’s just great,” I said, “now I have to find a new way off the roof.” The building was going fast and the fire was getting worse. I got to the roof and I couldn’t even see my own hands in front of my face.

“There’s no way I’m going to find anyone in this smoke. Time to put my comic book knowledge into action.” I started to propel my arms in a circular motion, blowing the smoke off of the roof. Huddled in a corner of the roof was a little girl no more than two years old, clutching a ragged teddy bear and crying. I ran over to her.

“Are you all right?” I asked, but her little sniffles were her only response.

“Shhhhh,” I whispered, “What’s your name?”

“Cindy Lou Parker,” she said, rather matter-of-factly.

“Come on,” I told her, “I’m going to get you out of here.”

“I want my mommy,” she said through sobs.

“Don’t worry, we’ll go find her together,” I picked her up and I headed back to the door, but when I tried to get through the fire was too intense. The little girl started to cry harder and struggled to get out of my arms.

“It’s OK,” I said trying to calm her, “we’ll find a different way down.” I surveyed the scene. The building was surrounded by larger buildings; save one side. Across from the apartment complex was an identical ten story building, between it and us was a four lane street measuring a good 30 feet.

“I can’t believe I’m even thinking this,” I muttered under my breath. “Hey, Cindy, I want you to hold on tight alright. We’re going to go for a ride.”

“A ride?” she asked giving me a puzzled little look.

“Yeah a ride,” I said, “Have you ever wanted to fly?”

“Yeah,” she answered, a happy little grin coming to her tear covered cheeks.

“Well that settles it than,” I told her. “I want you to hold on tight to your teddy bear and to me and we’re going to get out of here.” I could feel her grab on tight to my neck. “Now close your eyes and think of a happy thought.”

“Like in Peter Pan?” she said.

“Exactly,” I told her, as I backed up to the other end of the roof. My coach always said the key to long jumping was in your speed, and I was about to find out.

“Here we go,” I yelled, and sped off toward the edge of the building. The speed I put on in that short a distance was amazing. I swear I heard a sonic boom half way across the roof. Right before the edge of the roof, I planted hard, and the two of us went sailing across the street. As we approached the other rooftop, a thought came to my head. We were across but how were we going to land and not suffer some serious pain. Again my comic book instinct kicked in. With my right arm I held Cindy, with my left I started circling it, as I had to blow the smoke away. The mini cyclone that it created was enough to cushion our landing. I stood up and set Cindy down.

“Can we do it again?” she asked smiling from ear to ear.

“Maybe later,” I said, “I think we should probably go find your Mom.”

I led her down the stairs of the building and we walked over to the crowd outside Cindy’s building. I put her up on my shoulders, “Can you see your mom?” I asked.

“Yes, she’s over there talking to a fireman,” Cindy said pointing the way.

I led her over towards her Mom, who seemed to be frantic in her conversation with the fireman.

“You better go make sure your mom’s OK,” I told Cindy, and she took off towards her mom.

“Mommy, Mommy,” she yelled, “guess what, I flew.” But her Mom was too relieved that her baby had been returned to her unharmed to listen to a story about a flying girl that saved her and her teddy bear.

I started to make my way through the crowd heading back toward the track meet. As I did, I could here some people talking.

“It was the weirdest thing,” one lady was saying, “one minute I’m trying to find my way through the fire, the next I’m outside wondering how I got there. I’d almost swear that I was saved by a gray blur.”

“You know what,” the guy she was talking to said, “I just heard Bill Johnson from 4B say the same thing ‘a gray blur.’”

I didn’t stick around to hear anymore though. Once I found my way clear of the crowd, I started to head back to the track meet, but then I noticed my clothes. My once gray sweats were black in several places with soot, and they reeked of smoke.

“There’s no way I can go back to the meet like this,” I thought to myself, “I’ve got a better idea,” and with that I took off in a new direction.

The trip took only a few minutes, and it shouldn’t even have been that long but I’m directionally challenged. I got half way through Canada before I realized I had gone too far, but in what would seem like no time to anyone not traveling near the speed of light, I was back on campus standing out side my dorm building. I let myself in and walked up the stairs.

“There’s no way I can keep this big a secret to myself,” I thought. “I’ve got to tell someone,” and with that I was standing outside Amber’s door. I knocked lightly and pushed the door open. “Amber?” She was sitting at her desk looking about ready to throw her Macro-Econ book out the window. “Umm, Amber?” I said a little louder. She turned around, and I swear she nearly died at the sight of me standing in her room.

“Carolyn, what the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in St. Louis? Did something happen at the meet?” she shouted at me.

“You could say that,” I said as I plopped myself down on her futon. I had made myself at home here many times when I was dealing with other problems, but never one as huge as this. “You’re not going to believe what happened to me.”

“Come on, spill,” Amber said, as she situated herself on her desk, “You can’t leave me hanging.”

“I have super powers,” I blurted out.

“Sure you do,” she said sarcastically giving me a smile.

“No really, I have super powers,” I stood up and grabbed the end of Amber's lantern lights. Using myself as a human battery I made the lights start to glow. “This is not NORMAL,” I shouted pointing at the lights.

Just then, the door opened, and Aaron walked in. He just stood there for a second staring at me. I realized that I was still powering the lights. I quickly dropped the plug and hid my hands behind my back.

“Umm…Carolyn, aren’t you supposed to be in St. Louis right now?” he asked, still staring at me.

***********************************************************************

AARON: Saturday afternoon

When I woke up, it was late afternoon. I decided that I just couldn't keep this a secret. But who can I tell about this? Who do I really trust? Everyone was gone… Except Amber! She’ll be there! I decided I didn’t want to scare here, so I used a portal to the sidewalk behind the TWC. Almost no one goes back there anyway. I proceeded to walk to Tarble, the all girls dorm that Amber and Carolyn lived in. I walked up to the fourth floor and all the way to Amber’s room. I was about to knock when I heard familiar voices inside. Carolyn’s voice! I knocked and Amber opened the door, and there was Carolyn, sitting on Amber’s futon. I stood speechless for a second. “Umm… Carolyn, aren’t you supposed to be in St. Louis right now?”

After explaining to Amber and me what had happened in St. Louis. We both stared in disbelief. Me more than Amber I think.

"Carolyn, as much as your story is unbelievable, you're not going to believe me."

I proceeded to tell Carolyn and Amber my story about the rock, and my experience the night before.

"Wait, so you're telling me we both got superpowers yesterday?" Carolyn asked me.

"It would seem that way. Which is really weird," I added.

"What are you two going to do now?" Amber asked us. Carolyn and I just looked at each other.

"Yeah…" Amber said. "Maybe you should go check on the other two guys. Justin was in that chemical accident yesterday."

"Holy crap, you're right." I said. "Carolyn, wanna try my exit?" I asked as I made a portal between us. "Just walk right in we'll be near South Hall."

She reluctantly walked through, and I followed to go visit Justin in his room.

**********************************************************************

JUSTIN: Saturday evening

I woke up slowly and realized the sun was starting to go down. I had been asleep for a long time. From the point I got to my room after the accident to now, now being Saturday afternoon, I had been in and out of sleep. In the room, the lights still proved too bright for me. I looked in a mirror. I had a big cut on the left side of my face. The rest were small and would be gone in about a week. I looked at the big one. "Well, that might leave a scar," I said aloud to myself. "Eat you heart out, Montana." I took some aspirin for the pain and lay down on my bed again. Feeling my eyes had been shut enough for the day, I just laid there twirling a throwing knife I had in my fingers. My fingers. There was a weird, tingling, itchy feeling in my fingers. The phone started to ring. I blindly tossed the knife before getting up to answer the phone. Wait, I thought. The phone stopped. I walked over and looked at the phone. I picked it up. There was no dial tone. I checked the cord. It was plugged in, but was all on the ground. About three inches were still connected to the phone; beneath where it was cut was the knife, stuck in the wall.

"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed, and I pulled it out. "No way. Impossible. I didn't aim for it. I can't even throw a knife right." I decided to try again. I drew a target on a piece of paper and taped it to the wall. I threw the knife from the other side of the room.

Bullseye.

I tried again. Same results. I tried again. Another bullseye. The corner. I'll hit the top right corner of the paper. Not the bullseye. I threw the knife. Top right corner.

"Un-fucking-believable." I grabbed a handful of pens off my desk. I threw them like darts. Each one hit the bullseye, and stuck in the wall. I retrieved them. I put them between my fingers. A star. I threw the pens. They stuck in a star-shaped pattern in the wall. I heard the door open, and Aaron and Carolyn came in.

"Justin?" Aaron's voice said. "You up? We heard what happened." I grabbed the pens and walked over to where Aaron was.

"Don't move! Check this out!"

I threw the pens at Aaron. They all stuck into the wall around his head. Aaron was stunned. He stepped forward, turned and looked at the wall. He slowly turned to me. His lips moved to say "holy fuck", but no words came out. Carolyn's eyes were wide open and staring at me. I just smiled at them.

"Pretty cool, huh?" **********************************************************

At dinner that night, all we talked about was my accident.

"It's the chemicals," Aaron said. "There's no other explanation."

"But how?” I asked.

"My guess it that it somehow mutated your eyes to make them sharper, more sensitive, or something. That's how you can aim so well. It would also explain your sudden sensitivity to light."

"Well how am I suddenly able to properly thrown a knife?"

"You said the medic told you the glass almost hit a major nerve. The chemicals must've leaked into the nerve and affected your nervous system." Carolyn remarked.

"Hey, the little baby's out of the hospital," came Todd’s trademark annoying voice. "What's the matter, did you hurt yourself?"

"Todd," said Carolyn, "please refrain from angering the guy with the big chunk of his face missing."

"Oh, what's he gonna do?" replied Todd. "Come on, let's go, Scarface."

"Dude, did you even see Scarface? Do you remember what happened when Scarface got pissed off?" asked Aaron.

"Fuck you," said Todd as he walked away. "Fuckin’ pussy, wish he would try something."

That was all I was willing to take. I stood up, grabbed my plate, and threw it like a Frisbee. It shattered against the back of Todd’s head. He was at least fifty feet away.

"Say 'ello to my leettle friend!" **********************************************************

That night, we went back to Aaron’s room for our usual homework avoidance. We put in a DVD of Desperado.

"Listen," said Aaron, "we have to tell you something."

"Hey," I said, "I know I was out of line back there, but I've just had enough of..."

"No," said Aaron, "we have no problem with you breaking open Todd’s head. And for once, one of your damn Scarface quotes was appropriate."

"So, what's the...."

"We have powers too," said Carolyn. I stared at the two of them.

"Wha?"

"Listen," said Carolyn. "I want you to throw you're knife at my head."

"Huh?"

"Throw the knife at my head."

"You're serious?”

"Yes."

"But..."

"Throw the god damn knife!" the two of them said at once.

"Ok, ok."

Carolyn stood against the wall. Nervously, I held up the knife. "I can't watch," I said. I closed my eyes and threw the knife. Some one tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see Carolyn.

"How...?"

In an instant, Carolyn became a blur and ran to the other side of the room. Suddenly, the room became shrouded in darkness. I turned to see it was coming from Aaron.

"Holy shit," I said.

"Welcome to the club," said Carolyn.

"All you need now is a weird, superhero name," said Aaron.

I was shocked. I dropped onto the couch. Powers? Superhero name? Aaron controlling darkness? Carolyn the Flash? Cool! I glanced at the TV. Danny Trejo's character was attacking El Mariachi.

"Call me Navajas."

**********************************************************************

ERIC: Sunday

I was still in college back then, still kicking ass in Jeopardy college version before I went to the full-fledged show. Let's just say it was helping me pay for my education. (Hey, a private college isn't cheap folks)

Then it happened.

I was enjoying a corn dog in my friend Carolyn's dorm room, with both the microwave and corn dog at her expense. I was listening to her and Aaron as they got into yet another squabble.

"I'm telling you, Marvel invented the anti-hero to beat DC..." Aaron began.

"I swear, if you give that speech one more time...” returned Carolyn pointing a threatening finger to his face

Before I knew what had happened, the microwave had been struck with a bolt of lightning and exploded in my face, severely burning my corn dog beyond edibility. Before a shard of glass or radiation could puncture my skin, though, the microwave was swallowed up in a black mist and blinked out of existence. Once I had recovered from the bizarre spectacle that had just happened, I turned around to look at my friends. Both were sitting on their hands and looking rather sheepish.

"So..." I said, my corndog-less stomach growling angrily, "When were you guys planning on telling me this?"

"Sorry, Eric," Carolyn said, shifting uneasily, "we were going to tell you, but we weren't sure how."

"Well, blowing a microwave up in my face wasn't the best way." I cocked a quizzical eyebrow.

"I was trying to zap HIM," she said, glaring at Aaron, "I'm sick of his pro-Marvel spiel every five minutes. I don't have good control over my powers yet, so it went kinda.... wayward..."

"Wayward is a good word." I said, chuckling.

"Hey, maybe the microwave like, radiated you and gave you powers too," Aaron piped up jokingly.

"Doubtful," I said. "I'd be feeling something if it did. You don't get exposed to radiation and do a dance," I then proceeded to dance a short jig, to a couple of small giggles.

As usual, exerting any physical movement in my friend's dorm had made me profusely warm. I swear the women's dorm must be full of cold-blooded creatures to have to keep it so damn warm there.

I went to sit down on her bed, drinking one of her root beers. Justin, who had been asleep, woke up and squirmed away from me.

"Dude, you are really frickin’ warm," he said in disgust.

"Blame this damn dorm," I said sourly, "or maybe it's because of the electrical blast I was just exposed to."

"Electrical blast? God damn it!" Justin leaped out of the bed, his long hair flying wildly, "I told you two not to use your powers!" He proceeded to draw five knives from his sweatshirt and bury every single one of them in a narrow space between Carolyn and Aaron. He then stopped, turned a bright red, and looked at me.

"Aw shit..."

"Great, so you're super-accurate? Wonderful, am I the only person on this damn campus without super powers?"

"Well dude," Aaron replied, "you are filthy stinking rich from your quiz shows."

"Point," I said, nodding, "add that with my excessive body heat and super smell, and I might just be the lamest hero in the world."

"Ya know," Carolyn said, "you could just pull a Batman."

"Elaborate." I said, chewing on my favorite pen.

"You got so much damn money, why don't you build gadgets and crap and follow us around? You're the smart one too, you could be our 'detective' like Bats."

"That's a great idea!" I said, getting excited again. I could feel the heat radiating off of my fevered brow. And my hands, and my legs. "And I think I know what kind of 'gadget' to make." I said with a grin.

"I guess I had been holding out on you guys too. You see, I had my pals at the government, for a nominal fee, make a little gadget for me. In fact, they said it should be here today."

And it was.

"Here it is guys. Be amazed at my awesome...what the crap?"

The box contained a black garment and thousands of tiny little metal pieces covered with sensors and other cool glowing thingies. I glanced at the side of the box.

"This side up...fragile...SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED? GAH!"
To avoid pulling my hair out, I stormed over to the telephone and called up my government "friends"

"Some assembly required you jackasses? What the hell did I pay you 500 mil for? Leave it to the US to do something this ridiculous. How the hell would I know how to set this thing up? Instructions in the box? This isn't a freakin’ Lego set you sons of bitches! I..."
I turned around to look for those said directions and found the suit lying completed, folded nicely, on the floor. My friend Carolyn had a ridiculous grin on her face.

I hung up the phone. She was still smiling like a mad toad.

I walked over to her, my face deadpan.

"...super-speed too?"

"Yep!" Carolyn replied with a grin. It was done.

"Okay guys, here it is," I said, stepping out of the bathroom of our dorm, "don't laugh, I know it's kinda goofy."

It basically looks like a diving wetsuit, but with a thin metal inlay of cybernetic monitoring and extraction units. The thing weighs about seven pounds, give or take, and is really hot, which is the point. You see, the suit takes all the excess body heat I exude, and collects it as biothermal energy, which can then be released in a heat blast. A cybernetic headset accessory can also tap into my memory cortex and give me the ability to shape the fire to my will. After getting over the original horror of seeing my pudgy body in a tight, form fitting suit, my friend Logan began to laugh.

"That's your fucking gadget? You look like a gay member of the Borg!"

I simply extended my left hand (the one with the heat blaster attachment on the ends of the fingers) and manipulating a pattern of fire to spell out, like a neon sign, FUCK YOU. This caused Carolyn and Aaron to laugh hysterically, and even Justin got a chuckle out of it.

"Oh yeah, I remember you talking about that," Carolyn said.

"Yeah, but tell me that's not your whole costume. Eeww," Aaron, joked.

"Nope. Because this thing feeds off my body heat and in turn keeps my body at a comfortable heat, I can wear heavy turtlenecks and trench coats all year long and not sweat a drop. All the heat is collected from me before I can start to sweat. So, if you'll excuse me..."

I swept back into the bathroom and, two minutes later, emerged. I was wearing black pants, a black belt with a silver buckle, a black turtleneck, and over it all a long black trench coat. To top it off, I placed a black fedora over my side-parted hair and topped off the whole package with a pair of circular wire frame black sunglasses.

"Wow. Bad-ass." Justin whistled.
"Yeah, nice." Carolyn said, "So what the hell do you call yourself?"
”Hmm…” I thought. I wanted something exotic, yet practical.

“FlammenHerr,” I said. “The Fire Gentleman.”