Scary Spies

“Welcome to my very first super secret super hero meeting!!” Mike yells excitedly.
“Yeah, at our house” Elise mutters. She sits on the couch fidgeting on her phone. Mike is standing at the front door with a white board he found at the dollar store, Filza tranquilly sits on the floor near him at the coffee table. I sit across from Filza, hurriedly trying to catch up on my homework. Dexter types away on his tablet while sitting on the stairs. Cierra and Marissa sit at our small kitchen table. Cierra sways her legs back and forth.
“What other place is better?” Mike asks, drawing a question mark on his board, “This is the only house where we won't have adults eavesdropping on us.”
“Why isn't Trey here?” I ask.
“Luna, we've been over this,” Mike sighs, looking a little sad, “He doesn't know about any of our powers. It might be safer to leave him out of this entirely.”
“Then how come Filza is here?” I ask, “And Dexter?”
“And me,” Elise huffs.
“Okay, okay,” Mike says, “Maaaaybe we can involve him, but right now we need to have our superhero's meeting!”
“What exactly is there to discuss?” Marissa asks, “We have powers, there's nothing more to it.”
“We could discuss adding Trey,” I say.
“We need to talk about what we're going to do with our powers!” Mike says, “With great power!!”
“I choose to do nothing,” Elise says, raising her hand, “Meeting over!”
“Meeting not over!” Mike says, voice raised, “We need to put some thought into this!”
“You're going to need a lot more than a Spider-Man quote to put everyone's lives at risk,” Elise says.
“What makes you think we can even be heroes?” I ask, looking down.
“Well, like I keep saying, we all have powers,” Mike says.
“Powers that we can't necessarily control,” I say, “And we don't know what those powers will do to us.” All I can think about is the side conversations I would have with Doctor Mallory. He would tell me all of the time that he made Spooky and in turn me. He told me that she was made out of this sticky, gross darkness and I need to work very hard if I don't want that darkness to consume me. Yes, it's really cool that I can control this raw energy to pick things up with it, use it as a shield, a beam, etc. But it's also dangerous and I can easily hurt someone without some sort of control. The good doctor always implied that if I don't control these powers, that they'll control me. It's absolutely terrifying that with one accident, I've become this different person down to every molecule and my future is this huge blur if I can't get ahold of myself.
“Our powers could make us stronger and better people,” Mike says, “Why look negatively and dismiss all of the good things that could come out of this? We could save lives.”
“It's childish to think that you can protect everyone,” Elise sighs, “Some of us are trying to just survive high school, let alone the entire fate of the world.”
“Some of us need more than boring high school,” Mike argues.
“Then graduate and become a cop!” Elise snaps.
“Alright, thats enough,” Dexter raises his voice, “We get it, you don't agree on this. What if everyone did a short trial to see how they feel about this. Whoever has a superpower can do a few missions and if they hate it cool, if they love it cool. The point is to try it before making a final decision. Mike might hate fighting crime and Elise may love it.” Mike and Elise grumble at each other.
“I'd be excited to see what being a hero is like,” Cierra says, “Trying would at least bring some peace to... that place. All of the training and experiments go towards something purposeful.”
“Luna was the prize child, but I was the protege,” Marissa huffs. That statement makes me feel small.
“Luna?” Mike asks.
“Yeah... Sounds like fun...” I say, trying to push enthusiasm.
“Elise?” Dexter asks. Elise groans, but accepts to go with us for a few missions.
“Well,” Dexter begins, “If you want to start now there's a hostage situation going on at a bank.”
“Don't people who run those things have guns?” Elise asks, “And would shoot the hostages the second we charge in?”
“Okay, in all fairness,” Mike begins, “Someone is going to have a gun pointed at us if we become superheroes so we might as well try now.”
“Shit,” Elise says, “I was expecting it in high school.”
“Or walking down the street,” Dexter mumbles.
“Alright,” Filza says, looking a little sick, “Very real and scary things against another real and scary thing.”
“We just come up with a plan before going in,” Mike says, “Hey, Luna, can you use your darkness to go through objects like in the television shows?” I shake my head no.
“Jeez, you all forget who is here sometimes,” Marissa sighs.
Just like that, we all change into these weird and absurd clothes that really no one would be wearing together but here we are. With my hair down, I smear my purple eyes with black makeup and wear really baggy, black sweats. I also found some purple gloves and sneakers. Everyone else is in awkward clothing and masks too, except theirs is color coded to the appropriate power. Like electric is yellow and love is red. One day a superhero is going to have on orange colors but really have ice powers. I don't know who labels colors for powers, but not cool.
The bank itself is surrounded. Flashing police cars and ambulances line the front of the building. SWAT trucks are positioned all over while someone tries to negotiate with the people inside. Reporters and helicopters try to do anything they can to get a scrap of information. The alleyway behind the bank seems almost too peaceful compared to the entrance. It makes you wonder why there's no one back here in the first place. Mike, Cierra, Elise, and I stand at the back door. Marissa jumped inside the electrical lines and entered the bank through there. Once inside she is supposed to disable the cameras and unlock the back door. We wait a few minutes until we hear the bolt click. Elise swings the door open and walks through the threshold. Mike quickly follows after her, then Cierra and I. My feet feel heavy and my chest is pounding. People often tell you it's important to breathe, but I still hold my breath anyway. As we weave through the building, we hide in all sorts of places to stay out of sight. As I become lightheaded, my body lifts into the air. Each time it happens I have to ground myself both mentally and physically.
Elise kicks down the entrance to the main lobby, the doors falling with a heavy thud. Mike pulls back a red arrow and Cierra's fists light on fire. We burst into the room with five armed men and ten hostages. Anyone with a gun screams at us to get down or they will shoot the hostages, even though their weapons are pointed at us. Cierra lets her fire go and puts her hands up. She slowly kneels down and places her palms the ground. The rest of us stay upright, ready to fight. One man keeps his gun on her while the other four are on us. Cierra smirks and ice spreads from her fingertips to the assailants. Ice reaches under all their feet and spirals up their calves, freezing them where they stand. One man shoots himself in the foot in an attempt to get loose. Two men shoot at our party. I use my darkness as a shield, the bullets bouncing off and into the walls. Mike lets go of his invisible string and an arrow plants itself in their knuckles. The robbers scream and swear at us, falling over from the pain.
“Oh my goodness!” A strangely dressed woman yells, walking through the front door, “Look at you guys!! You're doing so well!!”
“Don't move!!” Mike yells, pointing a red arrow at her. The woman looks at him with wide eyes, then smiles and waives at him. Mike goes to yell again, but instead lowers his bow. His arrow disappears. There's something about her that makes you feel warm on the inside. Something that makes you want to completely trust her. The woman herself has long blonde hair tied into a high ponytail with bangs that frame her face. She has a strange white headset on her with a light green screen that comes from both ear pieces and covers her eyes. A white jumpsuit covers her body from her chin to her heeled feet. Patches of the suit itself is light green, such as her fingers and knuckles. Light green arrows themselves run from her jaw, down her shoulders and to her mid bicep. They also run up from the bottoms of her heels to her knees. White round bracelets that glow light green at the center hang from her wrists. Light green empathy symbols are on her chest and back.
“Hello, please call me Empathy,” She says, radiating this loving energy, “It's a pleasure to meet you! Are you the group that's got my organization all stirred up?” She talks a lot with her hands. No one answers her, we just stare at her. Empathy continues to say, “I'm looking for Cupid, Spooky, Icy-Fire, Elecra, and.... Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't know what your hero name is!” Elise shrugs. Empathy smiles and says, “I will explain everything in a moment, but I would LOVE for all of these beautiful people who are on the ground to please go into the safety of the police outside and for anyone with a weapon to please place them on the ground!” The hostages slowly, but surely leave. The criminals themselves do exactly as told. The police then enter and make their arrests. Empathy asks the police to leave my group of friends alone. How did everything suddenly go so smoothly when she entered the room? It's almost like everyone felt lighter when she walked in.
“I'm sure you have a lot of questions,” Empathy says, once we're all alone, “And I'm more than happy to answer all of them.”
“How do you know our names?” I ask.
“The Organization has put a lot of research into who you are,” Empathy explains, “Mostly Cupid. He's the one showing the world that superheroes exist, but I would love to go more in depth with this in a better area. Is there somewhere you all are more comfortable having this conversation?”
“How do we know this isn't a trap?” I ask. Empathy takes off her headset and the light green hologram screen that ran across her eyes disappears, revealing light green eyes.
“You don't,” She says, “Doing this will come with a lot of trust in a complete stranger, but that is why I would like you all to chose where we talk. It can be as public or private as you would like. I just recommend that if it is a public place we meet in two hours so we can change into civilian clothes.”