Seven Steps to Becoming a Superhero

Zack felt invincible in the Knightbrand armor. He had to resist the temptation to joyride around campus. The cheers and gazes of the students below him made it all the more harder to resist. The students he passed displayed their smartphones, snapping pictures of Knightbrand as he passed by, soaring through the air.

This is why he first became a superhero. The thrill. The wonder.

The power.

Zack put all of those aside. He had a job to do. His mission wasn’t over. Not yet anyway.

He landed just in front of the central building in Innshadow and walked through the double-doors with some effort. Strangely enough, walking remained the most challenging task in the Knightbrand armor. Dad clearly crafted this armor with flying, fighting and running in mind, in that order. Walking was going to be a problem.

The entire suit felt awkward and top-heavy on the ground. Zack worried he might topple over with the slightest breeze, but he kept his focus as he walked through the doors of the Dean’s office. He struggled to stay upright, and if he wasn’t careful, Knightbrand might stumble into a room like a freshman staggering out of a bar.

Dean Weave and Assistant Dean Shaw were there to greet him, or rather, to greet Knightbrand. Zack expected a warm welcome. He expected Weave and Shaw to roll out the red carpet. After all, Weave made it sound like his father was a big deal on campus, and if the reaction of the students on the parkway was any indication, he might just be right.

Instead, Zack found Weave and Shaw waiting for him in almost the exact same manner as he had found the pair several weeks ago. Weave stood up and eagerly shook his hand in the same flimsy manner as he had when he was simply Zack Kester, potential Innshadow U student.

He had to give Weave one thing - the guy certainly was consistent.

Shaw, for her part, seemed somewhat less standoffish this time. She stood on the other side of the desk, with one hand resting on her hips. The woman seemed to regard Zack with something he couldn’t quite put his finger on . . . she certainly wasn’t afraid of him . . . she didn’t seem angry with him . . . but something was definitely off.

“Zane,” Weave said. “It’s been a while. Would you care for a seat?”

Why was Weave calling him Zane? Everything Dad had told him about Innshadow U seemed to indicate he hated this place. So how the hell would his father even know someone like Bob Weave?

He tried to put it out of his head. After all, Bob Weave was a professional butt-kiser. He probably called everyone by their first names - even supervillains and henchmen.

Weave indicated a chair for Zack to sit in. He regarded the chair with an uneasy gaze. If he could barely walk in his thing, he didn’t know if he should try sitting down. Gravity had not been kind to him so far, and the last thing he needed to do was trip Shaw’s suspicions even more by failing the act of sitting in a chair.

“I’ll stand,” Zack said.

“Straight and to the point as always,” Weave said. “We’re glad you were, ahhh, in the neighborhood. That could have been bad.”

“Yes, it could,” Zack agreed as he crossed his arms on his chest.

“Fortunately, you were there. However, our students demonstrated tremendous courage today,” Weave said. “Still, we appreciate your help in bringing this incident to a timely end without bloodshed.”

“Yes, well, I’m confident our security team would have apprehended the villain,” Shaw said. “Still, I find it strange that a villain attacks our campus the same day your son starts attending school.”

Zack turned towards Shaw. He didn’t like her tone, mostly because she was right. The timing was suspicious. His heads-up display began wildly flashing. The suit had detected something on her midsection. Zack tried not to stare, but there was something on her person the Knightbrand system didn’t like. He had bigger problems though, like answering Shaw’s rather direct accusations.

“I think what my colleague is trying to say-” Weave started to interject, but Zack didn’t give him the opportunity.

“Is that what you think is strange?” Zack said, leaning into the voice modulator to disguise his tenor. “Because I find it strange that a crew of supervillains I’ve been tracking for months suddenly takes refuge in your campus.”

Zack felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. Fortunately, the Knightbrand armor came with its own independent air supply.

“Crew?” Shaw said after a minute. “As in…more than one?”

“That’s correct,” Zack replied within the Knightbrand armor.

He hadn’t planned on a crew. Given all the chaos he had caused, Icer seemed like a big enough threat on the college campus to stir the pot. But Shaw had forced his hand, and he needed to raise the stakes somehow.

“Which team is it?” Weave leaned forward, clasped his hands together.

“The Black Ice Krew,” Zack replied. “Krew is spelled with a K…because all of them are killers.”

“They sound very dangerous,” Weave said.

“They are,” Zack said.

Largely because I just made them up.

“And you believe there are more of them on campus,” Shaw said, sitting on the edge of Weave’s desk with both hands perched at her sides.

“I do,” Zack replied. He tried not to look at her. Something on her belt buckle was sending the Knightbrand warning system into overdrive.

“And how do you propose we handle this situation?” Weave leaned back in his chair.

“Icer is the weakest link of the group,” Zack said. “Once we get him, he’ll lead us back to the rest of the group.”

“Icer…” Weave seemed to be sampling the name in his mouth. “Is that Freeze Ray’s kid?”

“It is,” Zack said, neutrally.

“I hear his old man is in lock-up at Highrock Prison. He’s doing multiple life sentences for mass murder,” Weave said.

“I did hear that,” Zack agreed.

“Guess the apple doesn’t fall from the tree,” Weave replied.

“Apparently not,” Zack said, uncrossing his arms. “And it’s given him plenty of motivation to lash out against anyone who might be a threat.”

“You think that’s why he picked Innshadow? As an easy target?” Shaw asked.

Zack resisted the urge to shrug. It’s what Zack would have done in the situation. But not Knightbrand. He kept his posture straight, betraying no movement nor emotion. He simply said, “It fits.”

Weave seemed to be processing all of this. He finally looked up.

“How do you propose we catch this guy?” Weave asked.

Zack swallowed, hoping it didn’t audibly translate through the voice modulator.

“I’ll need access to all surveillance footage on campus, plus data logs for all the campus computers. Full access,” Zack said.

“Out of the question,” Weave stood up, faster than Zack had anticipated. “Look, I appreciate what you’ve done here, Zane, I really do. But you’re an Unaccredited superhero, and you know the deal.”

Weave continued. “I can’t just hand it over that access, even to a hero like yourself. It’s a huge privacy concern.

“Bob,” Shaw said, without looking over her shoulder. “Give it to him.”

Zack found himself staring at Shaw, mouth agape. Shaw was helping him? Why on earth–

“Bob,” Shaw turned to him, still perched on the desk. “We have sixteen weeks of crap coming our way. We don’t need one more thing.”

She turned back to Zack, fiddling with her brown hair and she kept her eyes on Zack.

“If Knightbrand can make this problem go away, I say we let him,” she said. “Provided he keeps us in the loop at all stages of his investigation, which he most certainly will, right, Zane?”

She turned to him, her hand running through her long brown hair as she said his father’s name. It brought an uncomfortable feeling to Zack.

Was her and Dad…a thing?

Dad never mentioned her. Then again, Dad never mentioned a lot of things from his personal life. He mentioned Zack’s biological mother so little sometimes he forgot he had one, save for the odd birthday card sent sporadically over the years.

Zack put aside the past as Weave sighed and jotted something down on a notepad. He handed the scrap of paper to Zack.

“These are all the passwords you’ll need,” Weave said. “You’ll have access.”

The Knightbrand armor didn’t have pockets, but it did have something better. A small opening slid aside in the palm of armor, suctioning the note through a small tube through the wrist. Zack would collect it later.

“Thank you, Bob. I know this can’t be easy,” Zack said, trying to sound professional and conciliatory.”

“Just catch this creep,” Weave said. “Before he hurts anyone else.”

“I will,” Zack said, turning to go.

“Zane,” Shaw said. “I’m sorry I brought up your son…I just…I thought it seemed weird that’s all.”

“You’re just doing your job,” Zack said, resisting the urge not to shrug. He had what he needed. Now he just needed to go without raising suspicions.

“It was good to see you, Zane,” Shaw said.

“You too…” Zack paused. What was her name? Amy? Ashey. Amber! That was it. “Amber.”

Oh this is so wrong…and awkward…and weird…and wrong…

He turned and walked out of the office, before immediately blasting off into the sky. All Zack could think about at that moment was taking the longest, coldest shower ever.

Zack landed a short distance from the parkway. He used the woods to change back into his student gear. He pressed a button on the module brick, separating himself from the armor and stowing it in a secret hiding place within his house. He made sure to retrieve Weave’s note beforehand.

Zack returned home, triumphant. His plan had worked without a hitch. It’s like Shaw had said. They didn’t want a mess this soon into the school-year. They had given him all the information he would need to search for his father’s killer without any interruption.

Still, it was strange how the meeting had gone. Zack had counted on Bob Weave being the one to cave, but instead, it was Amber Shaw, the hard-nosed Assistant Dean, who came through for him. Whatever her and Dad happened must have been significant.

He decided to put it out of his mind. A win was still a win. Zack now had all the power and access he would need to find his father’s killer. And once he did so, he would activate Knightbrand armor and take his revenge.

Then nothing could stop him.

The house Zack had rented wasn’t anything fancy. It was merely a ranch-style one bedroom house, with a small living room leading to an even smaller kitchen, a spartan bathroom off to the side. A wall partially separated the kitchen and bathroom from a modest living room and similarly small bedroom.

A knock at the door sent hollow reverberations through the house. Zack made his way through the door.

Zack opened the door. A female figure wearing jeans and white jacket stood at his stoop.

“Excuse me, I’m from the Innshadow Beacon. I just wanted to know if you saw the recent supervillain attack here…” the woman said before looking up.

Zack looked up as soon as heard the soft voice.

It was Rachel Ducane.

His former girlfriend, staring right back at home, waiting for him to say something.