"James! James!" a familiar Australian voice called out my name. I groaned, rolling beneath the sheets until someone forcefully turned me over. "Wake up, mate!" he exclaimed. His fingers dug into my side, and before I could react, my eyes fluttered open. I found myself drenched in sweat, the room momentarily bathed in a purple hue before fading away. With his hoodie pulled back, the masked face of a young boy stared at me while a concerned super-vigilante observed from the corner.

"Son of a bitch," I growled, swinging my legs off the side of the bed as I lunged at the guy, pinning him against the wall. He raised his arms in surrender, pure fear etched on his face.

"Calm down, mate. I won't hurt you," he pleaded. I locked eyes with the masked Superboy, my grip loosening around his neck as I realized he posed no threat. Slowly, my fingers released their hold, allowing him to stand firmly on the ground. "You're strong," the boy remarked, brushing himself off.

"Good to know. Now, who are you?" I asked, assessing him. He stood about my height, maybe an inch taller, with deep brown eyes and a mask obscuring most of his face. His eyes had an almost innocent look as he silently pleaded with me. Was this Noah or Max I was facing?

"What's with this bloody family? Do you think I'll reveal that information to you?" he retorted, ruining the moment.

I threw him against the wall again, and he reluctantly raised his hands in surrender. "What do you want?" I clenched my fist, ready to strike, but the boy shielded his face.

"Hey, whoa! Easy there, Mighty Mouse," he protested. Loud footsteps approaching the room diverted our attention. Swiftly, the boy swept his foot under mine, causing me to stumble and fall to the floor before he escaped through the window.

"I'll see you around, Knight," he called out, tipping his hoodie's brim before disappearing into the night. At that moment, Sam turned the corner.

"Are you alright?" Sam's gaze locked onto mine as I pushed myself up from the floor. He extended his arm, helping me to my feet. "Son of a bitch," he cursed.

"I should have taken care of him."

"You know killing him won't solve our problems," Sam said. "You don't want to live with the guilt of having killed—" Sam paused momentarily, hesitating. "I'll drive you to the mall. Matthew and Derek had an emergency meeting this morning and had to leave early, and you need to get out more."

"Fuck," I muttered.

"Just let me know when you're ready. It would be nice to see you act like a teenager for once, James." I rolled my eyes, observing as he approached the doorway. "You have ten minutes, maximum. I mean it," he warned, tapping his wristwatch before leaving the room.

∆∆∆

The nearby mall was the last place anyone would expect to find me, yet I was leaning against an empty glass store window with Derek, enjoying bites of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from a cone.

"Those two new kids in my class, they're supers," I mentioned, slurping the melting vanilla ice cream off my thumb. Derek raised an eyebrow, sucking on his mint chip cone.

"What?" he inquired.

"I find it strange how they appeared out of nowhere. Besides, the accents of the new boys match those of the supers," I explained. We sat in silence for a moment, savoring our ice creams.

"I can't do much without solid evidence, but maybe you should trust your instincts," Derek suggested. "Your Spidey senses might be tingling," he chuckled before taking another bite of his ice cream. Who does that? "Are we almost done here?" he asked.

"I might have a few more bites left," I replied, pointing to the two scoops of ice cream still piled on my cone. "You're kidding, right?"

"What?"

"Who bites into ice cream?" he snapped. I thought, You just did. You bit into it, Derek.

Suddenly, an alarm blared from a jewelry store nearby. Lost in our midafternoon desserts, Derek and I should have noticed a masked man walking past us. We were oblivious.

"Nobody move, or someone will get a bullet in their skull," the masked robber demanded. He had an Australian accent, much like the two supers. It couldn't be a mere coincidence.

"Son of a bitch," Derek cursed. We discarded our ice cream in a nearby trash can and quickly devised a plan.

"Go, Derek!" I ordered. Derek rolled his eyes but stayed put.

"You go. I'll be right behind you. You're the one with powers," Derek reasoned. This time, I rolled my eyes.

Wimp.

Instead, I pulled my hood over my head and lifted into the sky, floating over the mall until I reached the jewelry store. I watched the masked man perform a smash-and-grab while Derek escaped on foot. In the background, terrified employees crouched on the floor while people around the mall recorded videos on their phones and gawked. What's with these people?

"Hands up," Derek announced, drawing his gun from his waistband beneath his hoodie, feeling momentarily empowered. However, the robber shifted his attention to me, floating in the air, observing him. My gaze flicked to Derek below, standing there watching me.

The robber effortlessly plucked the gun from Derek's hand with a mere thought, causing it to levitate into his own hands across the room. I gasped. Shit. The man was a super, too. How did I not see that coming?

Ascending to my level in the air, the masked man pointed the gun back at Derek. Then, he pressed his finger against the trigger, narrowly missing a young couple who seemed oblivious to the danger. Reacting instantly, I positioned myself in front of Derek within a split second, my eyes tightly shut. As the bullet ricocheted off my chest, I cautiously opened my eyes and sighed in relief.

"Phew," I exclaimed, a momentary panic subsiding. "It's been years since I've done that." Descending to ground level, I faced the robber. His blue eyes met mine, and his grin faded.

"Stand up, James!" he commanded. Panic washed over me as I glanced at Derek, who looked shocked.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" I stammered.

"Ask your damn father who I am," the robber grumbled.

Noted.

Raising my hands in surrender, I complied with the robber's demand. "You too, Derek."

Derek rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. Annoyed, the robber redirected the gun toward the two frightened employees who held their hands in the air. "Leave them alone," I interjected. "They haven't done anything to you."

The robber turned the gun on me again, and I bit my tongue. Shit, I needed to learn to filter my thoughts sometimes. He then turned the gun back to the employees. One of them, a male, discreetly reached under the counter and pressed a panic button. An alarm blared. An impatient growl escaped the robber's lips, and the gun clicked. Derek stood there, watching me, as fear gripped me for the first time, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"Do you want to fucking die today?" he yelled. This supervillain wasn't Noah or Max. Just great.

Adjusting his grip on the gun, the robber aimed it at me, and I charged toward him, frozen in time. We tumbled three stories in the air, finally landing on the ground level below. Our eyes shifted to the shattered weapon beside us like a plastic toy.

"What the hell?" he snarled. Collecting ourselves, I dusted debris off my shirt and shrugged. Then, the police stormed into the mall, guns drawn on the robber. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hands up!" my dad commanded, his eyes fixed on me as he stood there momentarily, gun pointed at the robber. But a dozen officers trained their weapons on me. I raised my hands in surrender, only for my father to intervene before they could pull the trigger.

"Stand down," my father ordered. The police retracted their guns, redirecting their attention to the robber. My gaze landed on Derek, who hurried down the second-floor elevator to join the other cops.

"Where's your brother?" my dad asked Derek. Derek glanced at me, then shrugged, and my eyes dropped to the floor, avoiding my father's gaze.

"Not sure. James wandered off to get something, but I haven't seen him since."

"Find him," my father barked. Our eyes scanned the mall, along with the other officers.

"What the hell," Garrett Reignson exclaimed, his gaze fixed on me. "Where's the robber?"

The other officers appeared dumbfounded. "He's superhuman," one of them stated. All eyes turned to me. I raised my hands in the air again, and a silence settled over us until I cleared my throat, breaking the stillness.

"I suppose I'll be on my way," I said, gesturing toward the sky. With that, I ascended, floating above the mass of police officers. Camera flashes erupted from every angle as onlookers tried to capture the perfect shot. I saluted the officers below, glancing at my father, who watched me from the ground, before speeding past Mark's friends, who momentarily tore their attention away from their cellphones as I flew by, bursting through the mall's double-sliding entrance.