Mind Games
Zach looks closely at the course selection menu, hoping something will jump out at him. Of course, there are the required classes. Science. Literature. History. Those sorts of core classes, that even normal kids take. But then, there are the others: Speed Thought. Power Enhancement. Mad Science. Mechanics and Theory of Superpowers. Heroes of the Past. So many classes. All required.
These required classes, however, are not the problem. The electives are. Zach flips through the pamphlet full of choices, frantically searching for an interesting… something. He does not want to get in the waiting list for the elective the Commander and Jetstream have teamed up to teach. Everyone has already signed up for that, hoping desperately there will be an opening. Nor does Zach wish to enroll in the less popular but well followed "Charisma and Power: How to Sell Yourself." He realizes Will has already signed up for the latter, but Zach is beyond the pressure of his peers. For his sophomore year, he wants to take a cake class that will look good on his transcript and that he can easily ace. And he wants the class to be interesting.
Flipping through the booklet is proving fruitless. Zach is thinking about going to enlist Warren's aid in finding a decent elective. Or Magenta. Or whoever he first stumbles upon.
Even so, in a final, dejected, and frustrating manner, Zach flips through the glossy white pages of the booklet once more. His eyes alight on a small piece of text he has managed to overlook each time. He smoothes down and leans into the page. The course description reads:
Course Title: Mind Games
Course Instructor: Lady Moon
Course Type:Elective
Course Description:What it brings to you and you bring to it.
Course ID:533219704
Zach is intrigued. The course description is suspiciously short and… suspicious. Lady Moon, he mulls, seems to be a name a superhero might take. The course is an elective. It is suspiciously perfect.
Zach bubbles in the ID of his final elective and turns in the form to the manila folder on Principal Power's door.
XXXXXXXXXXI am Lady Moon.
I am not the stuff of comic books, nor am I the bane of evil. I was once – I was Lady Starlight in those days – but now I am a mere reflection of my former self, as the moon's light is only the reflection of that the sun feels it is obliged to donate. For now, I walk the tides between good and evil, joy and sorrow. I am not joyful. I am not sorrowful. I am somewhere in between, brought only to one or the other in the heat of a moment – it never lasts.
Perhaps it is that the recent strain of superhero graduates didn't turn out so well, or perhaps not enough people know my name to be impartial. Perhaps I'm losing hope that I'll ever find Him again. Perhaps I'm gaining hope. I cannot accurately say that I know my own mind.
Whatever the reason, something has made me teach one course at Sky High, school for alleged superheroes, or anyone with paranormal powers. Mystery and rumor surround my course. Not even Principal Powers knows what I am going to teach – she is elated that I've come to teach at all, forget the details.
But I know what I will teach.
It will be revolutionary, a whole new schooling of thought.
My goal is to turn them into teams.
And as for the road to that point?… I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. I always do. I may have graduated from my own superschool five years ago, but I know one thing… while I'm there, I will keep Sky High on its toes…
Literally.
XXXXXXXXXXStudents slowly file in to the well lit classroom for the first time. Everything seems ordinary enough – there are eight tables, each capable of seating two people. There is a teacher's desk with a computer seated at it in the front of the room. The only even remotely unique or obscure aspect of the room is the lack of a whiteboard. Indeed, there seem just to be windows on all sides but one, a wall covered in cabinets.
Most of the students filing in are slackers of some sort. Zach sees Warren, already sitting in the last table on the right, and walks purposefully to get to the seat beside him. It appears that they are the only two of the group in this class.
After several minutes of dazed silence, a young woman of about twenty-two years of age steps into the classroom as if she has lead feet. Her face holds a serious expression, and her icy blue eyes scan the class. Slowly, her lips curve into a small smile.
XXXXXXXXXX(Author's Warning: The tense changes here.)
"Hello. I am Lady Moon," the woman said, taking note of the yawns that met her introduction. She'd expected this – her class was where all of the slackers who didn't turn in their placement forms were put. She hadn't managed to get a roster of who'd actually signed up for the class, so Lady Moon was on her own.
Like so many times before.
"My class takes place last block every even day. I expect you all to be on time, or not to come at all. I will be here only Thursdays and Fridays, however, and I expect that you treat this class as a study hall or social hour when I am not here. When I am here, I expect you all to work. Hard." She saw the class almost collectively grin at her supposed naivete.
"Furthermore, I expect all of you to skip gym Thursdays or Fridays, whichever day you have it depending on the week. I have ensured that you are all in the same class, and I have permission for this from Principal Powers and Coach Boomer. If you personally have a problem with this, I want you to take your leave right now." Lady Moon didn't have to wait long for a response to this – evil smiles had lit up her students' faces almost instantaneously. A student dressed in black and another dressed in some sort of white suit gave each other high fives.
"Before we come to this issue, I want to clear something up. I am twenty-two." She hesitated before speaking, as if afraid to speak her mind, then began again. "Yes, I am twenty-two. But I hold more power in my pinky finger than any of your other instructors. I will not be fooled. I have seen more evil than any one of your parents, heck, I've seen more evil than all of your parents put together. I am not just a pretty face. I don't expect to be treated like one." She took a deep breath.
"I have the capacity to make your potential boundless. You all will just have to work your – I mean, you are going to have to work hard. And in the end, it will be worth it." Lady Moon went into a trance-like state, and muttered to herself, "and it might be worth it for me…" The almost inaudible plea reached no one's ears.
"Thursdays we will make use of the classroom, Fridays the gym. I do not have an absence policy, nor a late work policy. I do not expect to have one. That is all. Are there any questions?" The Lady scanned the stiflingly silent room.
A hand went up.
"You."
The hand belonged to the kid in the suit.
"So, what's this, like, supposed to be?" the question hung in the air, and once and again Lady Moon's lips curled into a tiny smile.
XXXXXXXXXXFinally! The kid was strange, albeit, but he'd asked the question. The question that opened up to my rant. The question that opened today's entire lesson. I was prepared to show them what being a real superhero was.
"Before I answer that question, please make note of your homework: Determine my original power. That will be all. You may find an encyclopedia necessary." The sounds of pencil on paper did not beat out the silence of my well-lit classroom. I wanted to laugh. Every single one of them was going to fail his first assignment.
"So, what about this?" The guy with red streaked black hair sitting next to the guy in the white suit inquired this time. I smiled yet again.
"Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing." No one seemed to know what to make of that comment. But the guy in black laughed. "What's your name, boy in the suit?"
"M-me? You mean me?" He stuttered at first, in surprise.
"Yes, you. Do you see anyone else in here wearing a suit in August?" He didn't' respond. Maybe I'd been a bit too harsh. I haven't, after all, been that much of a people-person lately. "I thought not. So? Your name?"
"Zach."
"Well, Zach, please stand up. Come up here. Faster, please, I'm not a murderer." Even with my continued prodding, the boy only shuffled up the front of the room. I am not accustomed to waiting on others, no matter what I expect of them. Yes, it is a double standard, but I have never cared.
Finally, he was at the front of the room.
"What can you do?" I inclined my chin slightly and narrowed my eyes down at him, hoping I'd picked a good one.
"I – I glow…" He trailed off, and I jumped up and down ecstatically in my mind. He was a good one to demonstrate with. In fact, before the sidekick-hero stats were rendered obsolete, he would have even been a sidekick… Of course, everyone's mind frame was still the same. It angered me, that people should be classified like this. I shook my head in remembrance… 'He' had even been classified as a sidekick. If I had come here, I would have been.
But I hadn't. And He had shown through the flawed system.
"You glow." It was a statement. Fortunately, the whole class was silent. If anyone had snickered, I don't know what I would have done. Zach nodded.
A million ideas ran through my brain. It was like déjà vu, almost. I had to suppress the creativity flowing through me – he would be incapable of all of this, right now. But some day… some day, each and every one of these children would understand what being a super really was.
My face was a grave mask. "I need you to listen to every word I say. If you don't understand what I'm saying, tell me. No stupid questions."
Then I couldn't help it. My lips curled into yet another small smile.
XXXXXXXXXXI was regretting accidentally volunteering myself. It seemed like a load could go wrong while I was standing here, in front of everyone. What's-her-face didn't seem all too thrilled that I could glow, or that I was her guinea pig. Then again, I wasn't all too thrilled that I was a guinea pig either…
Was there still time to switch out of this class?
I was so absorbed in thought and some sort of weird not-exactly-fear anxiety that I didn't hear her next question.
"Wh-what?" She rolled her eyes and gave me what could only be interpreted as a black look.
"What color do you glow?" I swear I could hear her foot tapping.
"Greenish yellow."
That was when she looked around, acting almost irritated. Suddenly – and I swear, this is what I thought happened – the sun got dimmer. I shot Warren a look. Surely no one could dim the sun? Surely it was all a coincidence? Judging from the look on Warren's face, he believed that about just as much as I did. And I got a sudden feeling that maybe Lady Moon wasn't going to be the well-known heroine we all thought she might be from the get go, nor the incompetent instructor.
"Now glow." She needn't have commanded me – I already was. It was a power that I couldn't turn off. Everyone in our class knew that – well, anyone who paid attention, anyway.
"Is this the standardized limit to your power?" She looked at me, searching my face, and I nodded, silently.
"Do you really believe that?"
Again, I nodded.
Then she smiled. "Want to bet? Okay, now, how do you glow?"
That was a question that no one had ever asked of me, but thinking about it, it wasn't too difficult. Or at least, it wasn't in the basis of it.
"I radiate photons."
"Good thinking, but no, I don't think you do. If you did, your glow would show up in daylight. Instead, you bring a fixed number of photons to you. When the minimum quota is filled, you glow. That's why you glow subconsciously – it's the minimum quota." Her face remained a serene, somber mask throughout her speech, and I was struck dumb – but thinking it through, it did make sense.
"Now, with that, glow brighter." It seemed like such a simple command, but for a year, I had just, you know, glowed.
"How?"
"Let's think, here. If you glow naturally at the minimum quota and it looks like natural sunlight when you're in light, then you would just draw more photons to you. You would be surrounded by a higher concentration of light. You would glow brighter…" Lady Moon trailed off and crossed her arms.
I felt incredibly stupid just standing there, trying to call photons to me. I mean, seriously, just think about doing that in front of a load of people – calling photons. Not exactly call, per say, but… force? I don't know.
It was when I began to feel even more embarrassed and stupid than before that I heard some "oohs" and "ahs" from the class.
That was when I looked down at myself.
I laughed.
XXXXXXXXXXI'd smiled more today than I'd smiled in a millennium. I made a mental note of this – there would be no smiling next class. Maybe once I found Him, we could smile together, but not until. This class – no matter what it might mean for the future – meant nothing right now. They were just a bunch of juvenile delinquents.
But when Zach started glowing…
I had hope.
I looked at all of their alien faces. Soon enough, I would know each one better than I knew my own, for I own no mirrors. The closest I ever get to seeing myself anymore is in my car window, when it's dark out, and I have the lights on…
But I mayn't stray.
"Sir, you may take a seat." I nodded to Zach, pleased with his capability. To the rest of the class, I continued, "That is what this class is. Understanding, evolving. Some have more potential than others, but no one is limited. I take this moment to request that you each fill out an index card with your name, anything worthy about yourself, and your power. Feel free to write anything on extra space – I don't care. Once you have finished with this, you may take the rest of this class as a free block." I handed a stack of note cards to the boy in the first desk on the right. "But don't get used to it. That is all."
I lifted a hand and glanced toward the windows, allowing more light to enter the room. I suppressed a smile when I saw that some of them pinned me as the culprit of this "amazing" feat already. Of course, they were right. As the class progressed, I made mental notes of who was speaking to whom, what they were all doing, how they interacted. I made sure I made some little slips of my power.
None of them were watching, though.
They thought they'd find out by looking me up in their comic books or their Internet sites. I felt smug.
XXXXXXXXXXI was smiling.
It wasn't just a small smile; it was a full-fledged, teeth-showing smile.
I had just thumbed through the index cards, searching for something, anything, truly promising. There were, to be perfectly honest, many promising talents. The glowing guy was talent enough. But there were others – a flamer, a couple psychokinetics, among others. But those weren't what caught my eye.
No, what caught my eye was an index card that said this:
Name: Terence Daen
Power: I put holes in things.
Other: I don't really know what might be coined "worthy."
I only really saw "I put holes in things." Everything else seemed so trivial. The straightforward letters swam before my eyes.
"He puts holes in things." I said it out loud, and then I couldn't help laughing. I shook my head, over and over again.
"Terence Daen, you have made this class worthwhile, because you, you Terence Daen, you can put holes in things!"
That was the first time I'd felt happy in a millennium.
Two 'first in a millennium's in one day.
It was a good omen.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So. I am the author. Sorry if I screwed up anything scientific. I don't really want to apologize about screwing up characters, though, so I won't. But I would really appreciate reviews – this is my first entrance into the Sky High Fandom. So yeah!!!
Yay. Well. Yeah. Updates might be a while… just as a warning… But rock on, readers!
And sorry about how out of character Zach is. I'm bound to be even more out of character with other people, and caricaturize others. Like Will, and the other Strongholds.
Ellen.