The Super, Part Four: New Recruits

The Super sat at a cafe. He was worried. He was always worried, but there had been a distinct lull in criminal activity lately. This would normally have put other heroes at ease, but it just made him nervous. The sorcerer boy and the dragon had left, sure, but they had left him a promise: That they'd be back. That was about six months ago.

Now, crime seemed hard to come by. Sure, the usual petty stuff hadn't changed much, but that wasn't the Super's "job." He was a superhero, who supposedly only took care of real threats, people who could maybe even be thought of as "Supervillains." Everyone knew that wasn't the case, that he took out criminals, young or old, big or small. But now, it seemed like he was running out of people to fight. It seemed like he was almost losing his purpose. And that didn't sit well with him. He knew something big was about to happen. It always calms down before a storm hits. The problem was, when was the storm going to hit? He couldn't stop guarding himself, thinking there was danger behind every corner, and it was starting to get frustrating. He wanted to relax, but he couldn't do so because what if they came back? He'd be unguarded! And then--

His thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing. He didn't even used to have a phone. It was a new idea that the people thought of; if they needed help they could call him. It was a work in progress, mainly because hardly anyone even knew he had a phone.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hi," said the voice at the other end of the phone. It was Billy, the guy in charge back at the.... place they keep track of superheroes and supervillains. The Super even was a superhero, and he didn't know what it was called.

"Hi, Billy," said The Super. "What do you have for me this time?"

"I'm sorry, but... They're back."

"The dragon and the boy? Really?"

"Yeah," said Billy. "Made a huge show of it too, breaking all the convicts out of section ten."

"Oh, man," said The Super. "Well, I'm glad to have something to do again, but unfortunately I can't tackle this alone."

"What, you mean..."

"Yes," said The Super, "I'll have to assemble a team."


Three days later, he stood in front of a group of three people.

"So..." said The Super. "You're all here to fight against the dragon and his army, right?"

"Sure," said one, a girl of maybe eighteen. She was wearing some kind of dress shirt and dinner jacket combination with black skinny jeans and some red Converse shoes. It looked kind of weird for a superhero. It wasn't like they were eating a fancy dinner, or anything. "I mean, I've fought before, in a real war, a war that stretched across time itself--"

"Okay, Doctor, just tell us your name."

"I'm Rose. Come from another dimension, another time. But since I fixed all the problems there, I thought I'd come and help over here. Got a problem with that?"

"Not yet," replied The Super.

"Well, I don't actually have any powers," said another, this time a boy of about the same age as Rose, maybe a bit older. He was wearing a leather jacket on top of a plain, faded maroon T-shirt. "But I do know a heck of a lot about sorcery. I was told we'd be fighting against a sorcerer?"

"That is true," said The Super. "Glad to have you on the team, uh..."

"Alfonso," said the boy.

"Well, I do have powers, and a lot of them," said the last, a tallish girl of about twelve years. She wore some kind of red skin-tight body suit and a blue cape with a yellow circular logo on the back. A classic superhero outfit. Wow, thought The Super, they just keep getting younger. She continued, "I can fly, I'm really strong, I can shoot fire, I have laser eyes--"

"So you're useful," interrupted The Super. She'd started listing off exactly the same powers as his own. That was strange, but still, even if she was exactly the same, it's better to have two Supers than just one. "And what's your name?"

"Cassandra," she replied.

"Gah," said Rose. "Not another one."

"Uh," said The Super, "Is there a problem?"

"I thought she looked familiar," said Rose, still not answering the question. "Funny, I don't remember the blond hair, or the powers, but whatever."

"Uh," said The Super, again. "What?"

"Oh, like I told you, I've crossed dimensions, time-lines, you name it. So it comes to reason that in every dimension, there's one of me, maybe older, maybe younger, maybe a rebel, maybe quite ordinary. Of course, the same could be said for everybody, but hardly anyone gets to meet their alternative selves. Apparently, in almost every other world, my first name is Cassandra, or Cassie, or Cass, or whichever spelling you prefer. In the other dimensions, my middle name's Rose, but with me, it's my first name."

"Um," said Cassandra, "does that mean we're related, or...?"

"No, dummy, it means we're the same person. I'm just older and don't have powers," said Rose.

"Wait, wait, wait," said The Super, "I asked for superheroes. You know, with powers? I can deal with Alfonso, because he's got quite a bit of useful information, but you? Why didn't you tell me you didn't have powers from the beginning? You would've wasted a lot less of my time."

Rose flung her arm out, pointing right at The Super's head. With a gun.

"Because I've been in combat," she said, "and I need a job, and you need to take out a dragon. So, win-win. No other questions needed." She took the gun down, and put it back in its holster. He hadn't noticed it earlier; the gun or the holster. The gun itself didn't look like a normal gun, more like a hunk of silver metal shaped so it could be held easily. To the untrained eye, it didn't look dangerous at all. But when it was up against his forehead, he could feel the power coming off that thing. He could use that kind of power, especially since what they were facing was so powerful.

"Well, now," he said. "Isn't this going to be exciting." He looked around; The dimensional freak, the know-it-all who's clearly hiding something, and the clueless hero.

"Who wants to take down a dragon?"



Part four of the Super! Yeah! This time you get to know what The Super's doing! Except you already read it, so why am I explaining it?

Still hanging out with my grandparents. It's not looking like a "log" will be made, but I'll do my best to keep writing on The Super this week. Excitement!

That's about it right now. Thanks for reading, even when I'm not being consistent!

          Summer is fun,
                 PolarFarina