Superpowers

At least, that was true of everyone Ryan had met so far.

None of them had felt like a threat.

They were all like ants, chattering away. One easy glare from his Laser Eyes, and they would be reduced to ash in droves.

In the Seven Tower conference room, Ryan played on his laptop at a table that had been brought in temporarily.

He lost track of how long he had been playing.

He stretched. Outside the window, the sun was sinking, leaving the last glow of sunset behind.

Orange light spilled through the glass into the conference room.

Ryan left his laptop and got up to find dinner.

The place to eat was right downstairs.

It was a burger joint endorsed by a superhero.

These days, anything endorsed by someone famous came with a hefty markup.

When Ryan arrived and saw the prices, even he thought, How the hell can a burger cost this much?

The customers there seemed used to it, though. Ryan paid by card, bought a burger and a chicken wrap, and took his tray to a window seat.

He had barely taken two bites when he spotted a familiar figure outside the window.

It was Hughie, waving to him from outside the shop.

Hughie came in, winced at the prices as he ordered some food, then sat across from Ryan with his tray.

"Fancy seeing you again."

Hughie seemed delighted to run into him again so soon.

"I found a movie you're sure to like. Come by the store again later."

"I will if I have time."

Ryan was hardly enthusiastic. He had only wandered into the video store by chance, and he had little reason to go back.

He took a bite of his burger, then held it up and studied it.

The yellow bun looked utterly ordinary.

And its chew and texture? Honestly, Ryan found it a little rough.

Noticing Ryan's gaze, Hughie said bluntly,

"You can tell, right? Whoever made that burger couldn't be bothered."

"Yeah, it tastes pretty average.

"But they sure charge enough for it."

The price.

Ryan looked at Hughie. The guy ate his burger as though every bite made him think, That's money down the drain.

Still, he seemed to be enjoying it. Watching Hughie eat, Ryan replied,

"I'll come by."

That simple answer was enough to put a smile on Hughie's face.

It really didn't take much to make him happy.

After dinner, Ryan said goodbye to Hughie, went back to the Seven Tower to shut down his laptop, then headed to the store where Hughie worked.

As soon as he entered, he saw Hughie seeing off another customer before coming over to him.

It was already evening.

Yet the store was still quiet. Ryan glanced around.

"Have you asked your boss for a raise?"

"Next time. Next time, I'll make my boss beg me, in tears, to take more money."

"..."

Even Ryan was at a loss. Was the guy optimistic, or just completely unrealistic?

In any case, that wasn't why Ryan had come. He looked at the videos on the shelves.

"Where's the one you recommended?"

"Right this way."

Hughie led Ryan toward the shelves at the back, but the sound of the door opening came from the front of the store.

Hughie paid it no mind.

People who came into a video store usually knew what they wanted. Even left alone, they could generally find it.

Besides, Hughie thought the most important thing right now was showing Ryan that movie.

"You have to watch this."

"If I Had Three Days of Superpowers."

"Yeah. It's my favorite."

Hughie was about to launch into an explanation when a loud noise cut him off.

Thud.

Someone had slammed a fist onto the counter.

Drawn by the sound, Hughie looked over.

A burly man stood beside the counter. His hand had left spiderweb cracks in its glass surface.

Hughie couldn't let him damage anything else. Being a good employee, he gave Ryan an apologetic look that said, Just a moment, and hurried over to the customer.

Only when he got closer

did he get a good look at the man's face. He had a thick black beard and looked somewhat haggard. His eyes held frustration and a wild gleam.

More importantly, the customer seemed to have been waiting for him.

The moment Hughie approached, the man grinned, showing off his white teeth.

Hughie had never seen a smile like it. He felt like a little rabbit that had stumbled across a predator.

His voice started to tremble.

"I don't think you should go around breaking things."

"Want me to pay for it?"

"That would be great, if you could."

The bearded customer gave no answer to that. He held out a hand, one hardened by years of training.

Thick calluses covered it.

"Let's get acquainted. I'm Billy."

The gesture was clearly an offer to shake hands, and Hughie knew it.

He really didn't want to. But when he hesitated, Billy just kept staring at him.

Billy said nothing. The silence grew heavy.

Unable to bear it, Hughie worked up his courage.

It's just a handshake. It'll be fine, he thought, and held out his hand.

Billy seized it.

Elsewhere in the store, Ryan put the video back on the shelf. If I Had Three Days of Superpowers was, in fact, the sort of film minors were supposed to watch with parental guidance.

There was a plot summary on the case.

The protagonist's superpower was stopping time, and he used it to do things best left undescribed.

Ryan wasn't in the mood for that kind of movie. He turned to leave and saw, by the counter,

Hughie clutching one hand with the other, while a burly man gripped the hand he was clutching.

Hughie himself let out a scream like a young girl's.

"Ow, ow, ow! You're going to break my hand!"

Only when Hughie's face twisted with pain did Billy let go. A handshake was a normal social courtesy.

But when one person squeezed hard and the other was on the weak side, the second person wound up in agony, just like Hughie.

It was a social tactic Billy often used. Now he watched Hughie cradle his aching hand and blow on it.

He seemed to look down on Hughie as he spoke.

"Look at you. How are you going to avenge your girlfriend?"

"Avenge her?"

"I know about you. You're the wimp who thinks a lawsuit will get justice for his girlfriend."

"I'm not a wimp."

"Want to shake hands again, then?"

"Okay, maybe I'm a wimp for now."

Hughie knew better than to push his luck. He quietly took a step back and spotted Ryan watching nearby.

Thinking Ryan had walked into trouble, Hughie urged him to leave and come back another time.

Another time? Ryan doubted he would ever set foot in this video store again.

He shook his head, declining Hughie's well-meant warning.

"Don't mind me. Carry on."

Billy quickly noticed Ryan, a teenager with a calm expression.

A look of intense irritation crossed Billy's face.

"Just looking at you pisses me off, kid. Why do you look so much like that guy?"

"What guy?"

"Homelander."

"He looks like me, not the other way around."

That simple exchange improved Billy's opinion of Ryan considerably. He asked Hughie who Ryan was.

Hughie brushed the question off by calling Ryan a friend.

Billy didn't care much about that. He had come to discuss something with Hughie.

And since Ryan was Hughie's friend, he could listen in.

With only the three of them in the store, Billy had Hughie lock the door, then explained why he had come.

"A-Train killed Hughie's girlfriend. I feel for him. Superheroes aren't nearly as wonderful as they look."

At the mention of his girlfriend, the person Hughie cared about most, he perked up and joined in.

"I know. Sometimes I wish I could wake up in a world without superheroes."

"You can make that happen, Hughie. Just plant this under the conference table at the Seven Tower."

Billy took out a machine and explained what the small device did.

It was a listening device. Planted under the conference table, it could pick up more of the superheroes' ugly conversations.

Listening nearby, Ryan nodded. This Billy had ideas.

He was willing to act on his desire to smear superheroes, too. The only problem was that Ryan had already overturned the conference table. For all he knew, it was being scrapped right now.

But interrupting was rude, so Ryan kept listening to the two of them.

Hughie was the one who raised the question.

"How am I supposed to plant a bug under the conference table? I can't even get into the Seven Tower."

"Yes, you can."

Billy sounded certain.

"Tell Vought International that all you need is an apology from A-Train, and you'll drop the matter of your girlfriend. They'll invite you to the Seven Tower. There, you'll meet A-Train and plant the bug."

"No, no, no."

Billy might have had everything planned out, but Hughie was the one who would have to carry out the plan.

Hughie was uneasy to his core. He was an adult and knew enough to think through the consequences.

He shook his head so hard it nearly came off.

"Suing to get justice for my girlfriend is something I can do in the open. But if I plant a bug and get caught, they'll sell me to Cambodia as a blood slave."

Ryan interrupted him there. He didn't particularly care about their business.

Something else had caught his attention.

"What's a blood slave?"

Hughie was always patient with Ryan's questions.

"Someone kept around so their blood can be drawn. Even if they're rescued, they end up swollen all over and looking like they don't have long to live."

"I see."

Once he understood, Ryan stopped interrupting and watched the two argue endlessly over Billy's proposal.

One said, "Do it, damn it, you wimp who won't even speak up after your girlfriend died."

The other said, "A lawsuit is how normal people seek justice."

The argument went on and on, wasting time.

Ryan had had enough and suggested they settle it with a fight.

Hughie shook his head even harder.

"No violence. I can't beat him."

As the two kept bickering, Ryan looked away.

A bracket hung from the store's ceiling, holding an LCD television.

It was showing old news footage about superheroes.

The footage showed a city street.

A woman in a leather outfit had stopped an armored truck carrying money and criminals with her body.

She had caved in the truck's front end. The criminals scrambled out,

only to come face-to-face with a blond man flying in the sky.

The thug shouted, "Homelander, die!" and opened fire with the gun in his hand. Rat-a-tat-tat!

But when the gunfire stopped, all it had produced was the acrid smell of spent rounds and a haze of smoke.

The man he had shot was unscathed. Worse for the thug, red lasers flared from his eyes.

They struck the gun, melting it into white-hot metal that flowed over the thug's hand.

His hand fused with the metal. It was ruined.

The camera centered on the man hovering in the air. Below him, bystanders cheered.

"Homelander!"

The scene on television was electric, but Ryan's attention snapped back when someone came up beside him.

"Done arguing?"

"I punched him once. His face swelled up, and he couldn't argue with me anymore."

Billy waved his large fist, then looked at the television too.

"Every year, hundreds of people suffer because of superheroes. Hughie's grief is no isolated case. We have to expose the people up there basking in the applause."

"And then what? Most of the time, one lot leaves the stage and another takes its place. Even if Homelander gets exposed, some other superhero will step in."

"Exposing Homelander is enough."

"There's bad blood between you two."

"Bad blood doesn't begin to cover it."

Billy glared at the screen. Homelander was already being interviewed by the media. "You protected this country again today. What would you like to say?" Billy spat, with no concern for hygiene.

His spit struck the television screen, smearing Homelander's smiling face.

Billy said he wanted to bite the skin right off Homelander's face.

He offered no further explanation. Instead, he looked outside the store.

"Hughie, stop holding your mouth and sulking. I was out of line. Let me take you somewhere to make it up to you."

Hughie, still covering his mouth, shook his head.

He had done that more than anything else today.

But before he could refuse, he saw Billy raise that big fist again.

He didn't need to guess what would happen if he said no. His other cheek would swell up too.

"Okay."

Obedient and aggrieved, Hughie managed to squeeze out that one word.

Ryan pointed it out.

"He really doesn't want to go."

Billy shrugged and said it was fine. Then he invited Ryan too.

"Come along. I'll show you what superheroes get up to at night, so you don't harbor any illusions about them."

"Spying on people's private lives isn't something I'd encourage."

Even as he voiced his objection, Ryan pushed open the store door. The look on his face said, Hurry up.