"Ok Caleb, what do you want to do now?" His Mother asked as they reached their own car.
"Food, definitely." He replied, instantly grinning from ear to ear.
"Typical." Charlotte said, rolling her eyes.
"What, I've been fed through a tube for the last three months; it's time for something proper." Caleb sneered.
"Oh you pick the place, anywhere you want." His mother laughed as she got into the car.
"BBQ BILL'S BUFFET." He said.
"Ok but just this once." She said pulling out of the car park.
They drove into town and parked in the multi-storey car park, behind the main Shopping Centre. Almost as soon as they reached the restaurant they had a table and were talking about what he had missed.
"You missed one of the best things yet; the Flash saved an entire cruise ship from beaching itself on the rocks of Central city harbour." Charlotte said.
"Really?" Caleb asked. The Flash was his idol. He'd followed his exploits for the past year and half. He'd collected nearly every newspaper clipping and put it on his cork board in his bedroom.
"Yeah he did this sort of force wall thing where he ran so fast back and forth along the coast line that the ship lost its kinetic energy and just stopped." Charlotte said, excitedly.
"I didn't think you liked superheroes." Caleb squinted.
"Well I like the Flash, cos he's cute." Charlotte snapped.
"Only cos he dresses in leather." Caleb countered.
Their Mother snorted in her glass. Charlotte went extremely red. The waiter came with some breadsticks and the plates for the buffet. Caleb was about to get up when suddenly everything went still. Or rather extremely slow. He looked around. There was a man in the action of eating a burger, a little girl running around being chased by another girl and one of the Chefs dropping a platter of ribs. But all of them were frozen in place, even his mother and sister who were getting up to get food. People outside the window had become stationary as well. Pigeons, which roosted in the rafters of the centre, were taking off but not flying anywhere. The World had just stood still.
There was a sound behind him and he turned around. There was a man stood by the door to the kitchen. And Caleb immediately recognized him. He was the man in the blur he saw three months ago beside his mother, just before he got on the bus in the morning of the day he was struck by lightning. He was dressed in yellow and black and had creepy glowing red eyes. That was only what Hagen could see for the man was blurred. You couldn't see his face or any detail on his clothes.
"No, it wasn't mean to be you, it should have been her, it should have been the girl and you got in the way, huh never mind, you'll do." His voice was raspy and distorted.
"Who are you?" Caleb whispered.
"That doesn't matter, but you do." The Man in yellow rasped angrily.
"What do you want with me?" Caleb asked timidly.
"Your power." The Man said sinisterly.
"What power?" Caleb questioned. "Did you do this to all these people?"
"I did nothing, we are merely conversing at a different rate of speed than everyone else."
"What do you mean at a different rate of speed?" Caleb cried. He was starting to freak out. Clearly this man wasn't someone to mess with. "What have I done?"
"Nothing yet, which is why I need to motivate you."
Caleb wasn't prepared. One second the man was at least twelve paces away, the next he was right up in Caleb's face.
"How did you do that?"
"Doesn't matter, you can do it too." The Man rasped.
"What are you talking about?" Caleb cried.
Another second, the Man was stood right behind his sister with two fingers pointed against the temple of her head. She did not move
"You're going to run now, as fast as you can, or I'll vibrate my hands through her head and scramble her brain." He threatened. "It'll be excruciating."
"But why?" Caleb screamed. He was in ultra-panic now.
The man's fingers tensed. They moved closer to her head.
"RUN OR SHE DIES!" the Man roared in his twisted voice.
Caleb took off out the front door. He looked back behind him and saw amber electricity sparking around him. He zoomed along one of the passages of the Shopping Centre.
"I have super speed?!" he said to himself.
"Yes you do."
The Man in yellow was running alongside him. He was producing red lightning.
"RUN FASTER!"
Caleb picked up speed. The crowds of people were still and frozen. He picked a path through them, the amber electricity licking at his heels. With every step he took, he felt every cell in his body crackle with energy and his heart pumped like their as no tomorrow.
He looked back and saw the Man in yellow chasing him. The fear coursed through his system and kept him going. He left the Shopping Centre and raced on to the high street. The cars were stuck, rooted to the spot. Caleb danced between them until he was running down a side road out of the town. He stopped for a second and looked down at himself. He shoes were smoking slightly from the friction. He turned to look down the street but there wasn't anyone there. He turned back, only to looked straight into the face of the Man in yellow!
"WHY DID YOU STOP?" he thundered.
Caleb cried out and ran off faster than before. He ran straight out of the town and onto the motorway. Suddenly there was a colossal boom behind him.
"Did I just break the sound barrier?" he freaked.
"Yes you did." The Man in yellow said alongside him again.
"Why are you doing this?"
"You weren't meant to have this power, that infernal girl who was thrown out of the bus was." The Man said.
"Lindsey?" Caleb bellowed. "What have you done to her?"
"I appeared to her but she did not have the power and I realized my mistake, I tripped the wrong person into the chemicals, you were an accident." The Man stung.
"If you've hurt her, I'll…"
"Do what?" The Man laughed. It was the most horrible sound Caleb had ever heard. Like someone rubbed metal and wood together. "You can't even control this power."
Caleb threw himself at the Man, but he missed and ended throwing himself off the motorway, down a grassy bank into a field. He groaned in pain as he saw the Man in yellow appear over him in a streak of electricity.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing, this was but a test, you can go home now, but you will see me again, soon." The Man said. A line on his face which must be his mouth spread into an extremely creepy smirk.
There was rush of wind and the Man was gone. Caleb got to his feet and looked at his elbow. It was grazed but as he looked he saw it heal in a matter of seconds.
"What the hell?"
But he had no time for that now. He had to find out where he was. He climbed to the top of the embankment near the motorway and saw a sign saying the next right would take you to Preston.
"I'm forty miles away!" he shouted.
He climbed over the barrier onto the hard shoulder. He had run forty miles down the M6! He started walking back the way he came, the cars racing past him. Some teenagers laughed at him and pulled faces as they drove past. He started to wonder if he could run back at the super speed. The more he thought about it, the more cool it sounded even if there was a homicidal speedster out there after him.
So he kneeled down on the hard shoulder like an athlete would. He imagined the feeling of what it felt like to run like he did before. And just like that he took off.
The Amber electricity flickered behind him like before. The wind rushed past, flowing over him like an ice bath. The cars slowed down again. His feet hammered the tarmac. His arms flew from ear to pocket as he picked up speed.
"THIS IS SO COOL!" he shouted as he put on a burst of speed. He ran for another two minutes before he saw the turnoff for home. He zoomed up the off ramp and down the road straight into the outskirts of the town. Before he knew it he was outside the restaurant again. He ducked inside and saw his mother looking around worried. She knew he'd been gone.
To avoid suspicion, he sprinted around the back of the restaurant and entered through the Kitchens at speed so he wouldn't be seen. He ducked into the toilets and then came back out again to make it look like he'd been there the whole time.
He quickly filled up a plate and headed back to the table.
"There you are, where've you been? His mother asked, her expression scared.
"I was in the toilets." he lied.
"Did you fall in or something?" Charlotte teased.
"Ha, very funny."
He sat down but he was still uneasy. He kept looking up at Charlotte's temple to see if the Man in yellow had actually done anything. She caught him once and he turned back to his food. But he didn't have much of an appetite.
Half an hour later, they left home and his mother advised him to get some sleep. He listened to her and as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out.