What Makes a Superhero?

Clara Dean was an ordinary woman of twenty-three. She had a degree in business and marketing and worked for the magazine Fashion and Glam as a marketing assistant, causing her to work rather long hours for a salary of thirty grand a year. Tonight she had had the misfortune of not being able to leave until a rather large blizzard had swept through the town of Empire City, engulfing both the commercial and residential areas of the large city in its white and freezing reach.

Clara left her job at ten thirty at night, the storm had hit two hours prior and was still raging like a stampede of elephants, unbeknownst to her this was a time of the utmost importance. She unlocked the doors to her beat up 2001 Ford Crown Victoria. The car looked as though it had been through several crashes, with peeling paint, tires with so many patch marks it was a miracle that they still worked, and a muffler that shot out black smoke every time the engine turned over. However despite its appearances it was still one of the best cars that eve had been owned, working flawlessly once one got past the initial glance of the ruggedness of the vehicle.

Tired from the long day of work Clara got into her car after setting down her worn, brown leather messenger bag full of files and paperwork in the passenger seat. Looking down in the cup holder she finally had found the water bottle she had been searching for all day. After chiseling the ice off that had formed around the pop up top she opened the bottle and brought it to her lips. Frowning when nothing came out she gave it a squeeze to learn that the water inside the bottle had frozen over.

"Fantastic." Clara groaned, a small part of her repressed Georgian accent slipping out.

After slipping her seatbelt on, Clara put the keys in the ignition and turned the car on. It came to life with a wheezing hack of black smoke emitting from the muffler before the engine roared and turned over. Smiling Clara patted the dashboard.

"You'll never fail me old girl, will you?" she said in a semi cheerful voice as she backed the car out and started to drive out of the parking garage.

Exiting the parking lot she drove out onto Main Street, an area normally busy with the hustle and bustle of citizens and tourists was devoid of any life in the face of the raging blizzard. The road was icy but clear, the small amount of salt and snow chains were the only things keeping the car on the road.

After ten minutes, four of those spent idling at a red light that refused to turn, Clara had taken the bridge off that led out of the commercial district and took the single lane road back to the lower east side where her freezing, one room apartment awaited her with semi open arms. The trees on the side of the road stood still from the frost that frozen them into place and the snow as getting worse as Clara could barely see down the road ahead of her.

A black shape moved in front of her and Clara slammed on her breaks, unknowingly she had been driving on a patch of black ice which caused her car to slip and slide all over the road. She screamed with the fury and power of a banshee as her car careened into a monstrous pile of snow. When the car landed in the snow pile Clara was thrown forward, her head smacking against the wheel. She blacked out on impact.

Clara woke up after an unknown amount of time; her head felt like it was splitting in half. She reached up to touch her throbbing temple to feel something warm and sticky, pulling her hand back revealed blood. Looking at the wound in her rear view mirror proved it to be fairly minor.

Clara pulled her phone out of her pocket and called roadside assistance, after a thirty minute conversation the person who as answered her call assured her a team was coming out to help her. Sighing in minor relief she sunk back in her seat and looked out of the windshield, all she could see was white.

Then when she was about to turn her head she noticed a small amount of bright green. Closing her eyes and shaking her head she looked again. There appeared to be a corner of what looked like a blanket, which would be helpful if it wasn't too wet from the snow.

Clara pushed the driver side door but it wouldn't open, too much snow had piled up. Unbuckling herself she crawled over to the passenger door and it swung open with no problem. Sighing, she braced herself as she darted out into the biting cold and went to where the blanket was. Being pelted with snow that felt like mini icicles and the wind cut her right to the bone. It was buried underneath some snow, she began to push it aside until she found the bundled up blanket. Grabbing it to bring back to her car she noticed it felt heavy.

Ignoring this for the moment she sprinted back to the safety of the car, slamming the door behind her. Smiling she looked down at her newfound treasure pausing for a moment as the sound of crying became evident, though where it was coming from she was not quite sure.

"Was that a baby?" Clara thought out loud, her brow furrowing together as she tried to find out where the sound was coming from.

The sound passed and Clara began to unwrap the bundled up blanket, wondering what was inside the blanket. As she pulled back the layers, her stomach began to drop as the sounds of crying grew ever louder. She approached the last layer and began to sweat as something moved underneath the fabric. Pulling the blanket back to reveal a small sleeping baby boy.

"Oh sh-ugar," Clara said as she automatically censored herself because of the new addition to her company. "What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?"

Clara looked around; she couldn't go back out there. But then again someone might be hurt. She hadn't run into anyone, just a rather large pile of snow.

Looking down at the infant she made sure that he hadn't been hurt. Gently running a hand through the infants black hair revealed no head injuries. His bright green eyes gazed with wonder as he looked around the inside of the car. There appeared to be no markings on the babies pale skin. His skin wasn't even cold, even though there was no telling how long he had been out there for she found it odd. The blanket was still rather thin even if he had been wrapped in it multiple times.

There was a tapping on the window was the man from roadside assistance waved at her. She held up her finger to signal one moment as she wrapped the infant up, making sure that he could breathe, and stepped outside the car.

The man was a cheerful, middle aged, African American man named Samuel. Despite being outside in a frozen blizzard he seemed to have an upbeat attitude that warmed even Clara up.

"Car get stuck in the snow bank? No problem miss, we'll have it out and ready for you in under twenty!" he told her cheerfully as he shook her hand.

"Thank you." Clara said with a small smile.

"My name is Tevon Ducard, if you'd like ma'am you can sit in my truck and warm up until we can get your car out and assess the damage." he told her as he held out his hand as if he was motioning to a giant palace.

"Thank you."

Clara held the baby close to shield him from the storm as she climbed into the passenger seat of the truck. Looking down at the small infant she cradled his head and held him like she had done in all of her childbirth classes back in high school.

Clara looked through the blanket to see if a name of someone was stitched into the fabric. Maybe she could find out whose child this was. After ten minutes of searching the very soft fabric she couldn’t find anything. She held the baby up in the air and looked at him.

“No tattoos, collar, ear tag, nothing, so what do I call you? I can’t just call you baby now can I?” she said as she pursed her lips. Clara began to start thumbing through the file cabinet in her mind labeled boy names. “Are you a Tristan? No, maybe a Chad? Never mind that, you’re not upper class looking enough. Lance? Charlie? Grant? What about Daniel?” she asked him, the baby gurgled happily, almost as if in agreement.

Clara smiled at him as she looked at him. “Well hello Daniel, my name is Clara. It’s so nice to meet you.”

****
Several hours later
After the man from Roadside Assistance managed to get her car unstuck and back on the road after a thousand thanks Clara was driving along. Trying to make sure the baby was propped up on her since she didn’t have the proper equipment to transport him, now she was just trying to make sure she would not get pulled over and have to explain why she was transporting a baby in a hazardous fashion.

Luckily she managed to pull into the parking garage across the street from her apartment complex. Parking her car in an open spot on the third floor, which was lucky considering everyone had been home for hours. Gathering her files and papers in one arm she managed to pick the baby up in the other. Pressing him against the files while making sure he was warm and wrapped in the blanket. Walking over to the stairwell through the pitch black was always terrifying, tonight wouldn’t be the first night she had seen suspicious people loitering around.

After coming down off the stairs of the third floor she stepped onto the beginning of the stairs that was in the domain of the second floor. The usual things greeted her, the random stain on the wall that looked suspiciously like blood but everyone wrote off as a giant ketchup accident, a dirt spot that moved like it was alive when one touched it with their shoe, the smell of terror, the blistering heat, it had been dubbed the rape hallway for the dreary state of this place.

The sound of footsteps behind her caused Clara to turn around in a mild panic. When she saw it was only Chad, her neighbor, she smiled and stopped so he could catch up.

“I’d give you a wave but my hands are a little full.” she said to him as he caught up to her and gave a confused look.

“I didn’t know you were pregnant, let alone that you had a baby.” Chad asked with a slight amount of confusion as they continued to walk down the stairs.

“My sisters, she had a last minute emergency.” Clara lied quickly; she didn’t know what she was going to do with the baby yet.

“Inter-” Chad began but was cut short when a club came down on his head. His six two height and two hundred pounds of solid muscle couldn’t protect him from a blind sided attack with a blunt weapon.

Clara screamed as she dropped her papers and clutched the baby tight into her arms. Trying to protect him from the unknown assailant. The man attacking them was a man in a suit, slicked back black hair with red streaks that curled into his hair making them look like horns, his eyes were the most terrifying. The irises were right red with yellow and orange spots, as he moved they looked like they were on fire, the pupil was nothing but blackness. A sneer draped his face revealing two very sharp looking fangs.

“Keep away from me!” Clara said as she began to run away but the man reached out and grabbed her arm, causing her to trip. Daniel’s blanket flew off of him, preventing him from having any sort of padding; he was sailing quickly towards the wall.

“No!” she screamed as he hit the wall with a loud smack, she ha just killed a baby. She turned to the man who stood there with a smile on his face.

“This isn’t the last time you will see me. It has only begun, and it began with that child. Farewell for now Clara Dean.” he said as he tore off into the parking garage.

Clara felt tears slipping down her cheeks, running over to the baby she picked him up to reveal the most shocking thing she had seen in her twenty-three years. He was perfectly fine.

“But, but, how?” she exclaimed as she looked at the wall to see a small chunk of it had been broken off. The wall hadn’t hurt him; he had hurt the wall. Looking down at him she didn’t know what to think. “What are you?” she asked him, hoping he could give her an answer.
****

Sixteen years later.

Bam, bam, bam, came the rapid taps of his mother’s fist connecting with his door like a jackhammer. Looking over at his digital alarm clock revealed the time to be, unfortunately, six-thirty in the morning. Daniel groaned as he pushed himself up to look as his mother walked into his semi messy room, he never did quite understand how she could be up and ready to begin her day so early every morning. But there she was in her business suit and skirt with the high heels, that she said was attempting to drive her to an early grave.

“You wake up now Daniel Dean, I don’t care if you can run at three hundred miles an hour or not. If you’re not in the kitchen in fifteen minutes I’ll make sure to leave the baby picture album laying out the next time you attempt to bring a girl home.” Clara threatened as she walked out of the room.

Daniel rolled out of bed and landed on the floor, groaning a bit from the haze that still clouded his vision and threatened to knock him back into sleep. Pushing himself up onto his feet he dredged over to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of jeans, black socks, and a solid red polo. Taking the clothes carefully he walked into the bathroom attached to his room.

The bathroom was barely a bathroom, Daniel always ended up hitting his head on the shower rod that held the curtain up each time he got out of it. He placed the clothing on the back of the toilet that was in a space large enough for Daniel to barely extend his legs one fourth of their full length.

Walking over and reaching into the shower he turned the water on a random setting, to him the temperature of the water mattered little, and stepped in. Today it was a cold shower; usually he had the luck to pick the coldest setting the building had, which would mean it would be around zero kelvin.

As he stepped into the shower his hand reached out for his toothpaste and toothbrush. Holding the toothbrush carefully, he twisted the top off and squeezed a small amount of toothpaste out. Using his pointer finger and his thumb to squeeze out the desired amount of toothpaste.

He brushed his teeth to make sure he would maintain his pearly white teeth; his mother was very strict on him maintaining his teeth. She would often say to him, Daniel, you know that if you loose your teeth then we can’t replace them. So I’ll kill you if you lose one and it doesn’t grow back before I notice it. He had always hoped that last part was a joke, but he could never tell.

After the daily ritual of making sure tooth decay wouldn’t rot his teeth out of his head he grabbed his shampoo and made sure to lather and scrub his scalp clean. All of his mother’s other tips had been to prepare him to make good impressions with everybody. Daniel even if you can jump off of thirty story buildings unharmed, that still won’t impress anybody who thinks you’re not worth their time.

Daniel frowned for a moment and pulled the curtain back to make sure his mother wasn’t standing there giving him words of wisdom that happened to conveniently fit in with what he was thinking. She wasn’t, which was curious, so he was confused as to why he was suddenly remembering all this sage advice of hers. Today was just simply the first day of school of his sophomore year. The big scare had been freshman year, where it would be a new surrounding with new people. That year had come and gone without incident, so why was it bothering him now?

Trying to shrug it off Daniel finished cleaning himself and then turned the freezing water off. He grabbed the grey towel that hung from a hook to the left of the shower and began to dry himself off with it. Once he was dry he stepped out of the shower and grabbed his underwear and jeans. Clothing himself in those two items gave him the sense of security in case his mom came in as she did on random occasions when she needed something.

Walking up to the mirror/cabinet he opened it up and grabbed his hairbrush. Quickly brushing his hair so it looked like something semi presentable. Next was deodorant, applying a small amount under his arm and a little on his chest for good measure. His morning cleanup was done.

He finished dressing himself and stepped out into his bedroom. The first thing he looked at was the clock to check his time, it was six thirty one now. I’m slowing down, Daniel pondered as he grabbed his backpack and walked to the kitchen.

Clara was in the kitchen, sipping from a coffee mug while she hunched over the business section of the newspaper. When she heard his footsteps she didn’t even glance up as she finished the last line of the paper.

“You’re slowing down, I had to wait a full minute.” she joked as she folded the paper in half and looked up.

“You know me mom, traveling at the speed of sound and beyond.” he told her as he placed his backpack on the countertop and walked to the refrigerator and pulled a carton of orange juice out and drank it straight out of the container.

“Daniel Dean, you know that drives me crazy when you do that!” Clara scolded.

“Sorry mom, it gives it more flavor.” Daniel retorted back as he placed the carton back in the fridge and closed the door.

“Either way time to head to school; you know how finicky Sarah gets when she has to wait for too long.”

“Alright mom,” Daniel said to her as he picked his bag up and began to walk to the door hoping to get out of his mother’s gripping goodbye kiss. “Love you!”

“Daniel you get back here and let your mother give you a kiss.” Clara barked angrily.

Daniel sighing and knowing protest was futile. He walked back over and bent down, presenting his cheek for his mother to kiss. His mother’s lips moved into a smile as she planted a giant smooch onto his defenseless cheek.

“Have a good day sweat pea, I’ll be home around fiveish.” Clara told him as she followed him to the door.

Daniel nodded and opened the door, “alright mom, love you.” he told her as left the apartment and closed the door behind him.

Walking towards the elevator he passed by his neighbor’s Justin and Julian, their door was wide open so Daniel could come in. A gay couple that was probably the nicest people Daniel had met, so far, in his life. Justin dressed like anybody else would, most women wouldn’t have ever guessed he was gay, but Julian was, different. Julian was flamboyant, the kind of person that wanted to announce to the world, “hey look at me I’m different!” One look would have cleared up any question of his sexuality that had been up in the air prior to meeting the man, especially if they had been there for the infamous flamingo incident at last years Halloween party. The two had an adopted daughter, Sarah, conveniently Daniel’s closest friend in the world.
“Daniel darling! Has your day been fabulous so far?” Julian asked as Daniel walked into their exquisitely decorated apartment.

“You know it has been. Yours?”

“It’s been terrific! Look at the gorgeous day we have today!” Julian yelled as he ran over to the windows and ripped open the curtains. Letting the light into the room. “Marvelous darling! Absolutely marvelous! Although I still have to run down to market to grab a few things. Such as…”

Daniel nodded as he let Julian go on about his plans and what he would buy at the market. It was easy sometimes to forget that he lived in a part of town the rest of the city with mixed reactions dubbed “the gay zone”. Daniel had yet to figure out why they said it in disgust, there were plenty of people here with differing sexualities.

“And that’s my list for everything that we need for Sarah’s birthday party next week.” Julian finished telling him as he returned back to the conversation. “Daniel you will be attending right? Of course you will! How silly of me to ask, my hubby and I did find you and her naked in the kiddie pool when you were eight. Bonded for life!”

Daniel tried to smile it off, he liked Julian and all but the man could talk. When he heard life footsteps emerging from the hallway he sighed in relief. He turned around to look and see if his suspicions were correct, they were.

Sarah stepped down the hall in a jean jacket that Daniel knew had the words rebel without a cause embroidered on the back, a red blouse, those jeans that come cut up and designed when a person buys them, a camouflage backpack, and a pair of tennis shoes. Daniel had never understood her fashion sense but he wasn’t an expert on it either way.

“We match.” she said to him with a smile revealing brace straightened teeth. Just last week Sarah had forced Daniel to come to the dentist to sit with her while her braces were taken off. She nearly bruised his hand in the process.

“We do, ready to go?” Daniel asked as he motioned towards the hallway.

“Sure.”

The two bid farewells to Julian who did his yearly fake sob, that was surprisingly realistic, for good luck on their first day of school. After getting away from the tears the two made their way to the elevator. Pressing the down button revealed the elevator a few moments later.

“So ready for the first day of sophomore year?” Sarah asked as she looked up at him through dark blue eyes that analyzed him thoroughly.

“Yeah, it’s going to be better than freshman year at least.” Daniel said as the elevator took them down to the lobby, opening with a ding.

The two greeted the doorman Nelson with a wave. He smiled and wished them the best of luck. The two thanked him and stood on the threshold of the building.

“Daniel old buddy,” Sarah began as Daniel started to smirk. “It’s a magical old world out there…”

“Let’s go exploring.” he finished their anthem for adventure that they always said whenever they were about to go someplace or try something new.

“Exactly.” Sarah replied as she grabbed his arm and ran outside to begin their adventure. For today was the day that everything would change.