"We're here to help, and it doesn't even matter who we are before we put on the masks because when we do put them on, it means we're here to help, no matter what."

~ White Lightning

Superheroes shouldn't really have to go to school.

I mean - who has time to go to pre-calculus when there's a mad man running ramped through the streets of the nation's capital?

Wait, let me backtrack this a little. You see, my name is Oliver Storm, or as the rest of the public knows me, White Lightning, notorious sidekick to Captain Impossible. Yes, the Captain Impossible. Maybe you've heard of him?

(Who am I kidding? Of course you have)

Unless you're living under a rock, you know of Captain Impossible. You know, the guy who saved the world from that gigantic robot running through Main Street last year? Or maybe you heard of the time he saved the President of the United States from the super villain Kronos a couple months back? No?

(Well, maybe you have been hiding under a rock this whole time.)

Anyways, he's a legend.

Me on the other hand? Let's just say that I'm like the lesser known friend of Captain Impossible. You ever see a picture of Captain Impossible? Yeah, I'm that one kid standing next to him.

Hello.

I'm White Lightning, not to be confused with White Static of Iris City back in California. He's the guy in the metal suit; I'm the guy with the white spandex - see the difference?

Anyways, I'm the one in the white and silver spandex. You'd think that would stand out next to Captain Impossible's light and dark blue, but people don't always see what they want to see.

It's currently 8 A.M. on a Monday morning, a school day might I add. Captain Impossible and I are running right across the Arlington Memorial Bridge, heading straight towards the Lincoln Memorial after a mad man in a rainbow hat.

Okay, I might still owe you guys some background information.

You see, Captain Impossible and I were superheroes, which meant that there had to be super villains, right? Well, I for one wish I wasn't right. The villain we were currently chasing down was Two-Face, a guy who could change his appearance at will. And, if he got scared, sometimes his power went out of control.

For instance, that rainbow colored hat on his head was not, in fact, a hat, it was his hair.

We had caught him trying to break into some senator's vehicle back on Jefferson Davis Highway. Who knows what he was going to do if he got to the Senator's car, but knowing Two-Face, it wasn't going to be good.

See? That was the problem with living in Washington D.C. Almost everywhere you turned you saw another important figure in politics. That just made our job even harder as well.

"Look, there's Captain Impossible and his sidekick!" Someone yelled from their car as we raced by. A hoard of cheers followed his statement.

I was used to being the 'sidekick'. It didn't really bother me much, it just meant that people were paying less attention to trying to figure out my identity.

I definitely did not want to end up like those supers in Empire City. Just last month someone reveal their identities to the entire world. It turns out that Sonic's father was a super villain and Blue Archer was that rich kid who went missing two years ago. Who knew?

Anyways, I'm getting off topic again.

Captain Impossible and I were racing down the bridge, only a couple yards from Two-Face now. He was panicking, shown by the fact that his hair had changed to a now vibrant shade of pink.

It was times like these that I was grateful that I used to be on the Cross Country team at my old school. Because, man, chasing down super villains was hard work.

I was still envious towards heroes like Sonic and Bolt in moments like these. I mean - why couldn't that lightning strike when I was ten have given me super speed instead of the power over electricity?

(Like, how awkward is it when you're kissing a girl and you accidentally shock her? Literally.)

Two-Face made it to the edge of the bridge before us and continued down toward the Lincoln Memorial Circle, glancing back every few seconds only to see that we were getting closer and panicking more. His face had now changed into something resembling George Clooney with a hooked nose and puke green hair.

I sighed and spoke to Captain Impossible through his earpiece.

"Dude, isn't there anything we can do to catch up to him faster?"

He scoffed and gave me an are-you-kidding-me look, "I'm indestructible, not super speedy."

I sighed and pumped my legs faster, panting with the effort. I was definitely going to be late to school today.

Two-Face stopped running when he reached the memorial and turned around to face us. Terrified tourists were running in different directions, but for every runner, there was some idiot with his phone out wanting to catch a video of Captain Impossible and White Lightning.

(Ahh, the problems of being famous, am I right?)

"Two-Face, you are under arrest according to the Super Ordinance of 1978. Surrender now and we might let you off the hook." Captain Impossible said in a slightly deeper voice, curtesy of the voice modulator we both had.

The Super Ordinance of 1978 was the document that allowed supers to carry out duties similar to those of police officers as long as they were in league with the local law enforcers, which we were.

Two-Face nervously glanced between the two of us and backed up to the building's edge. He was trapped.

"C'mon, Cap," Two-Face tried to say in a casual tone, but was shaking too much for it to be believable, "I didn't even get to him this time."

"Yeah," I scoffed, "this time."

He turned to me. "Lightning, Bro, what did I ever do to you guys?"

Captain Impossible sighed. "Look, dude, either come willingly or White Lightning over here is going to hit you with 50,000 volts of electricity. I'll let him choose what amp to hit you at."

This was a show that we went through often. I always made sure to only hit the villain we were after with nonlethal bursts of electrical currents. It was always just enough to render the person immobilized or knocked out cold, never anything close to .7 amps.

Two-Face took the coward's way out and lunged at Captain Impossible. I sighed and pointed my hand out at Two-Face. A familiar pull in my stomach confirmed that I had just shot Two-Face down with about the same force of a police Taser.

Captain Impossible reached down to his belt and took out his handy police cuffs and strapped them on to a moaning Two-Face while the guards from the Lincoln Memorial finally came running down to apprehend him until the real police came.

"Why'd you shock him, it wasn't like he could hurt me." Captain Impossible said, playfully pushing me in the shoulder.

I shrugged. "He was getting on my nerves. I need to be at school in less than thirty minutes now. I didn't have time to wait for him to realize how futile punching you would've been."

Captain Impossible laughed and patted my shoulder. "That's why I love you kid."

In case you didn't get it by now, Captain Impossible was indestructible. Like, literally. Nothing could hurt him. Hurtle him off of a thirty story building? Fine. Hit him with a train? No problem. His skin was like rock, impenetrable and unbreakable.

The news crews took only minutes to show up. After the parade of usual questions, the press finally left. It took them twenty minutes, and I now had ten minutes to make it class on time.

As soon as I was sure the press was gone for good, Captain Impossible and I headed back to his car, blatantly known as the Captain Cruiser to the public. It was painted the exact colors of his uniform and the futuristic shape of the car made it stand out against all others. It could drive as fast as any racecar and even had a stealth mode in which the exterior would morph to look like any regular old car on the street, but it was all just a film that tricked the public into thinking that.

The reason we didn't take the Captain Cruiser to chase Two-Face down was simple, there was a huge amount of traffic in downtown D.C. at 8 A.M.

The car was parked all the way back over the bridge in an alley, and I only had nine minutes to get to school now.

It took us five minutes to get back to the car, running and trying to avoid tourists and citizens who wanted a photo op. They just assumed we were chasing after another criminal at the rate we were running.

At the car, I dove into the back seat, immediately opening my backpack so I could reach my school clothes. I was able to unzip the spandex of my White Lightning costume and step out of it halfway before Captain Impossible took his first sharp turn on the way to the Eldredge Academy.

Captain Impossible had already thrown on a white button-up top and a jacket over the top of his uniform, which was part of the reason for his reckless driving. He'd also taken off his mask, completing his transformation from Captain Impossible, beloved super hero, to Daniel Jackson, your average comic book store owner.

You see, Daniel owned a comic book store when he wasn't saving the world. I happened to live above it and work there myself. It was how he knew me, and how he knew I had powers.

Daniel's father had been a scientist working for some top secret organization called MASKED (Monitoring of Abnormally Strange and Kaleidoscopic Events Department). They were the government organization in charge of keeping supers in line, created back during the Super Ordinance of 1978. His father was the reason Daniel had all of this cool technology that helped be the super hero he was. But his father died when visiting Empire City twelve years ago, when I was still a kid. There had been a fight between the resident super hero and villain of the town called the Great Battle and he must've been caught in the crossfire.

So I never really knew Daniel's father, but I was still grateful for all the technology he left behind for his son. It was the reason Daniel owned the building and the comic book shop, his father's inventions sold for a ton of money.

After a couple power outages in our building when I was younger, Daniel had started getting suspicious. It turned out that it was me who was causing them. I had just gotten my powers after a lightning strike and I didn't know what the hell was happening to me. Daniel took me under his wing and trained me. Soon, I was his sidekick and was saving the city from crime.

But, of course, it wasn't just any night that I got struck by lightning. It was the night my father died.

My father used to be a security guard for some big corporate company. One night when my mother was out of town and their normal babysitter was out at another job, my dad took me to work with him. I, being the hyperactive ten year old I was, was more than excited to go.

Some robbers broke in and my dad told me to go hide outside. I went outside, but there was a raging thunderstorm out there. And through the wind and rain, I spotted the robbers' truck. I ran for it, driven by some notion that I could catch them, but hid behind a lamppost when one looked my way.

Lucky for me, lightning decided to strike down right at the exact moment, hitting the lamppost and then electrocuting me.

I woke up in the hospital a couple days later to the news that it was a miracle I even survived at all and that the robbers had killed my father when he refused to show them the money vaults.

It was a couple days after that when I started experiencing the side effects. A couple weeks after that, Daniel came knocking on my door, claiming to know a way to help.

My mother thought that I just worked at his comic book store, helping stock the shelves and work the checkout, but I did much more than that. If she ever knew that I risked my life everyday as White Lightning, sidekick to Captain Impossible, she would freak.

When we finally reached Eldredge Academy, I was fully dressed in the school uniform with my spandex tucked neatly away in my backpack.

Daniel nodded my way as I ran out the door before pulling out and racing down the street, no doubt seeing if there was any more crime for him to stop before heading back to the store.

I stepped through the doors, but not before I was stopped by Ms. Solace, a school administrator who absolutely hated my guts.

"Ahh, Mr. Storm, so glad to see you decided to join us so late." She said in a voice like poisoned honey.

I glanced at my watch and cracked a smile, "Actually, Ms. Solace, I'm not late. The bell is going to ring in three . . . two . . ."

The bell rang out and Ms. Solace's face hardened like stone. For some reason it had been this woman's pure goal in life get me expelled or at least suspended ever since I came here. I had a strong suspicion that it had to do with the fact that I was a scholarship kid.

She narrowed her eyes. "You were lucky this time, Storm, but if I catch you late again, there will be repercussions."

I smirked and gave her a salute before heading to pre-calculus.

Okay, maybe being a super hero wasn't that bad.