Recently, for English class, we had to write a short story were we starred as the superhero.
As Phantom ran through the streets, dodging angry pedestrians and the occasional scooter, she couldn’t help but wish that her power let her teleport short distances. “I mean, what use even is teleportation if it only works to faraway places?” As she finally arrived at Minute Maid, she huffed, running a hand over her face. Looking up, she found herselves face to face with Typhon, the behemoth that had the nerve to be terrorizing Houston for weeks now. Normally, the problem would’ve been handed off to a larger superhero, someone way above Phantom’s pay grade- not that Phantom was getting paid- but all the local superheroes were “off on vacation”, a likely excuse. So the case had been assigned to Phantom. Lovely.
Typhon was…an interesting problem, for sure. Phantom had read her fair share of Greek mythology, devoured it in fact, and the so-called “father of all monsters” would be no small feat to defeat. Last time he had resurfaced, it had taken Zeus burying him underneath a mountain to keep him gone. As Phantom ran her eyes over his figure, she tensed, preparing herself for the onslaught of battle. She wasn’t one of the fighters, normally, that was handled more by the likes of Sylph and Undine, two higher-ranking superheroes, but she could handle a low-grade monster. Typhon…wasn’t low-grade. In the slightest. As she got into position for the upcoming fight, the advice her trainer had given her ran through her head and she took a breath, getting in stance to run and jump onto Typhon’s body, hopefully giving her a better chance to- wait, no way that was a rock, it was too... She shook her head, wrenching her gaze away from the rock, forcing herself to focus. Distractions were…unfortunately common on the job, especially shiny things…like that rock. She took a sharp breath, gazing back up at the beast in front of her. Well, better to get it over with, right?
That was the last fully formed thought she had before the fight began.
She woke up in an unfortunately familiar bed, groaning as the room came into focus. The agency that had recruited her, ACE, had rooms for each of its members, not that there were many. Phantom’s room was decorated sparsely, a few of her favorite books on the table and a poster or two of her favorite artists adorning the walls. She forced herselves to get up, wincing as her weight rested on her sore legs. Not only had she just fought Typhon, she had been to dance class just the day before. And now she was paying the price. “Not that I knew that I would be fighting this guy today,” her inner monologue reminded her.
She made her way downstairs, fidgeting with the pendant around her neck as she did. The powers that she had, well, really, she could’ve been anybody’s. She had been walking home from school one day, when something shiny caught her attention. She had kneeled down to pick up the object, a medallion, delicately engraved with a star. And…nothing had changed. She had tucked the medal into her pocket and thought nothing more of it. Things had taken a turn when, later that night, she had wished to go somewhere else, anywhere else. Being deposited in the harsh, stinging winds of the Sahara wasn’t exactly what she meant, but the medallion opened up a whole world of possibilities.
Before long, the word of her power had reached ACE, and she had reached out, offering a job and a promise of a “back-to-normal” life. Phantom had been hesitant to accept at first, but now, a year later, it was the last thing she regretted. She had been able to go back to school as Iniya- living a normal life with normal friends and normal classes. Most of the time, she was free to be herselves- going to dance classes, reading a lot, everything she had done normally. However, ever so often, her pendant- that medal she had picked up that fateful day- would begin to glow, softly at first, then more intensely, until she went and battled the villain that had chosen to terrorize the city that day.
The power to teleport was fun, sure, but…as just a high schooler, there wasn’t a lot to do with it. One day, far in the future, she wanted to be known. Known for doing good. Known for being a strong force in the world who people looked up to. Her dream of all dreams, not that she would tell anyone, was to rescue people around the world, freeing her from situations of peril and conflict. She could only hope that ACE would sponsor that dream of hers.
Even with that dream, Iniya hoped to settle down for life later, not as Phantom, but as herself. Get a good, steady job, have a nice house, a few cats, the works. She didn’t hate being a superhero, far from it, but she didn’t want that to be her entire life. She wanted a life dictated by her, not by a medallion picked up on the street or an agency that happened to realize her power. But that was in the future. For now, all she wanted was to survive in high school, no, more than survive, thrive.
Iniya left the agency with a backwards glance and a smile to Rose, her favorite concierge. As she headed home, she permitted herself a glance at the window of her favorite bookshop, admiring its neat and colorful displays. She had been hoping to buy herself a copy of ‘If We Were Villains’, one of the best books she had read in a while, but it had been sold out for a while. Reading was one of the things Iniya genuinely enjoyed and nothing could pull her away from a good book. Ever since she was young, her parents had encouraged her love of reading…which had potentially backfired as Iniya now needed a book in hand to even think about going to any social event.
Breaking away from her thoughts, Iniya focused on the tasks ahead of her. She would need to get home, recharge, work on homework, then get ready for the next round of fighting, after all, there was no way that Typhon would have been killed from just one volley of attacks. She headed home, already formulating a plan for her next attack. Phantom’s fighting style wasn’t anything incredibly unique, other than added acrobatics, usually just to show off. She had been hoping to add archery into her fighting style for ages now, though ACE had been picky about sponsoring her classes. Rolling her shoulders back, she let herself into the house, disappearing into her room to start studying for her math test. “Really,” she thought, “Math teachers should be more forgiving towards students who are quite literally superheroes.”
A few hours later, Iniya was ready to go, this time as Phantom- (hopefully) killer of Typhon. Typhon had retreated slightly, moving over to the Botanic Gardens and as Phantom ran through the foliage, she couldn’t help but wonder at the flora. “Maybe I should come here sometime…”. She ran up to Typhon, standing there, with the sun at her back, flanked by both Sylph and Undine, offering nods to her both, though her inner voice was screaming at her just casually standing next to the two greatest superheroes the city had. But now wasn’t the time.
So with the sunset fast approaching, the three stood together, one final force against the father of all monsters, one stand against death. It was time.
I hope you enjoyed reading!
