Flames shot seventy feet into the sky. The concussion wave knocked everyone standing in the quad to their feet. Jordan Winslow, the closets to the bus, was lifted into the air and propelled forward a dozen feet. The helicopter flying six hundred feet overhead was tossed to one side. Agent Davison had to brace himself against a window as the pilot corrected the craft. Fiery debris rained over the quad. The air was suddenly hot and thick with smoke.
Where a moment before there was a bright yellow school bus, there was now a collage of twisted burning metal, smoking rubber, and shattered glass.
For a long moment, only the flames and smoked moved.
A woman screamed. Many students began to cry; including many boys. Parents and faculty members pulled themselves from the grass and debris.
High above, in the helicopters interior, Agent Davison sat motionless. His eyes tried to taken every detail of the horrific image below, but his brain refused to process it all.
The smoke was rising to meet him, and the helicopter pilot swung the craft around as to avoid it.
"I… I… I need… I need…" It took him a few moments to realize the voice he was hearing was his own. He wiped the tears from his eyes and cleared his throat. "I need emergency vehicles to Oakridge Middle School." He said softly. "There has been an explosion. I repeat: a school bus has just exploded at Oakridge Middle School!" Some of the authority and vigor began to seep back into his voice as he went on. "I need emergency vehicles on the scene now! Fire and Paramedics required. All available units respond!"
He covered the mic on his headset. "Get me on the ground!" he shouted to the pilot. The helicopter continued its' decent. Davison continued to shout orders and directions into his headset as the ground came up to meet them.
"Sir?" the pilot interrupted.
Davison looked at him. The pilot pointed towards the burning wreckage. And Agent Davison saw it.
The silhouette was unmistakable, even among the flames and smoke. The six-foot four inch frame rose from the ashes like a bird of fable. It continued to rise until it hovered above the flames, and Superman began to float forward, his cape, normally flowing behind him in regal glory, was absent from his back; wrapped instead around the still form he carried in his arms.
All eyes were on him as he gentle touched down in the quad and immediately went to a knee, laying the body in his arms on the grass, pulling his cape from the small boys face and torso.
Jessie looked up at Superman and coughed.
"I think I broke my IPod…" he said, his voice dry and raspy.
"We'll have to get you another one." Superman said with a smile.
Everyone within earshot went wild with excitement, cheers, and praise.
"This boy needs medical attention." Superman said. A crew of paramedics, who had just arrived on the scene, rushed to his side then, rolling a gurney onto the lawn.
"Jordan…" Jessie said; his voice still weak.
"Who?" Superman asked, leaning forward.
"The girl with the long black hair…"
Superman looked up and saw the small girl sitting on the grass a few yards away.
"Did she see?" Jessie asked.
Superman smiled at him again. "She saw." He said softly. "She's crying… but she's smiling. I think she likes you." He added.
"Awesome…" Jessie whispered and then coughed hard.
"These people are going to take a look at you know…"
"Jessie…" the boys coughed again.
"Jessie." Superman repeated. "I'll be right over here if you need anything." He offered.
"Cool." Jessie smiled.
Superman backed away, and the team of paramedics went to work.
At that moment, roughly fifty yards away in the middle of the street, a helicopter landed. Superman watched as Agent Davison stepped out, and quickly walked towards him.
The agent didn't say a word as he walked past him towards the group of paramedics and the small boy. Superman tried not to eaves drop, but couldn't help to hear the concern, and relief, in the agents' voice as the paramedics gave him the news. He tried not to listen as they told the young boy how lucky he was, asked him what in the world made him run back onto the bus, then asked what a Flaming Love Monkey was. He tried not to pay attention as Davison barked orders to the agents and officers as they arrived on the scene. And he tried not to seem anxious as the agent made his way back over towards him.
Agent Davison was looking at the still burning wreckage when he drew even with the Man of Steel.
"The paramedics say the boy is going be fine; a few scraps and a mild concussion. They're going to take him in and run some test just to be sure."
"I heard." Superman admitted.
Davison glanced at him for a moment, and then turned back towards the wreckage.
"I asked you… scratch that; I told you to stay out of this!" He chided. Superman didn't respond. "I know you're 'only trying to help'; hell, you're always 'only trying to help'…" Davison continued. "But this nut job, whoever he is, just blew up a school bus for God's sake! Because you're "always trying to help"! Yeah, you saved the kids life. I don't know how, but that kid just got to see a bus explode from the inside and live to tell about it, and he has you to think for it. But I can't help but wonder how many other buses maybe blowing up as we speak,"
"None." Superman answered.
Davison looked at him again and raised an eyebrow. "Super-hearing?"
"That," Superman explained. "And the fact that when I flew into this bus, I had a chance to see the device. It was a small square, with two small lead cubes on either end; lots of wires, and something that looked like a 9-volt battery. And some type of transmitter."
"It could have sent a signal before it blew." Agent Davison remarked.
Superman looked at him for a moment, then back off into the distance. "Batman tells me that I need to look at the big picture more." He began. "That I look at every problem in terms of 'save' or 'smash'. He says I never look at the details…"
"Your point?" Agent Davison asked.
Superman let out a heavy breath. "This bus was meant to explode, Agent Davison." He said plainly. "There was nothing you could have done to prevent it from happening. You had the city covered with agents and police. You had the Board of Education dispatch help you with identifying and locating all the buses. And the one that explodes turns out to be the bus with the GPS systems removed and the radio disabled."
"The only one that could have stopped it was you." Agent Davison admitted.
"But I didn't." Superman stated.
"Could you have?"
Superman took a deep breath. "Yes."
Agent Davison looked away then as well. "Why didn't you?"
"Well…" Superman began. "For starters, you asked me, scratch that, you ordered me not to." he mocked. Davison gave him a dirty look. "And secondly…" he went on. "I thought about what happened with the tram."
"What about it?"
"The ferry didn't explode until after I stopped the tram from falling in the bay."
The light lit up over Davison's head. "And since you were the only one that could have stopped the bus from blowing, if you had stopped it, that may have triggered all the other buses."
"Right." Superman replied. "I was watching from the sky and was fairly certain the bus would be clear when it blew, but then the boy, Jessie, ran back onto it, and I had to act."
Davison glanced over his shoulder towards the ambulance. "That boy owes you his life." He said plainly.
Superman didn't respond, the thought of the ferry victims heavy on his heart and mind.
"Thanks for not listening to me." Agent Davison added.
"My pleasure." Superman mused.
Agent Davison was silent for a long moment. "We gotta catch this guy." He sighed finally.
"Yes. We do." Superman agreed.
Agent Davison looked back to the fire. While they spoke, fire crews arrived on the scene and started seeing to the blaze. "You gonna help them with that?" he asked.
Superman seemed to consider it for a moment. "You think that's a good idea?" he asked.
"The bus already exploded." Davison admitted. "If the transmitter was destroyed I doubt anything else is going to blow."
Superman seemed to consider it for a moment. He took a deep breath, and blew in the direction of the bus. His breath flowed from his mouth like a gale force blast of ice and wind. The flames of the wreckage retreated with earnest. In seconds, the fire was out and the wreckage was covered by thin sheen of ice.
Davison looked from the wreckage to Superman and back again, and then shrugged.
Superman smiled, nodded slightly, and then headed over towards the ambulance.
Jessie was laying in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. The paramedics had explained to him the he was going to go to the hospital and run some tests. They had called his mom on a cell phone and he had listened to her cry hysterically and thank God repeatedly. She said she was going to meet him at the hospital and told him she loved him more times than he could count.
Now, he watched Superman walk towards the back of the ambulance.
"How you feeling?" he asked.
"Good." Jessie answered; his throat still sore and dry. "They said I'm going to be alright. But I have to go to the hospital. My mom is going to meet me there."
"That's good." Superman smiled and ran his fingers through the small boy's hair. "Just try to be a little less forgetful from now on and I'm sure you'll be fine."
Superman turned to leave then, but Jessie called out to him. "Don't forget your cape!" said as loud as he could manage, pointing towards a ball of crimson lying on the bench beside him.
Superman pulled the soft red fabric to his chest, balled it up slightly, and then handed it back to Jessie. "Hold on to it for me." He said.
Jessie smiled widely beneath his oxygen mask.
Superman turned again, rose into the sky, and flew away.
In his place was a beaming young Jordan, her eyes slightly red from tears.
"I'm happy you're alright." She said. "That was really cool that Superman saved you and everything. I'm going to ask my mom if she can take me to the hospital to visit you later. And if you come to school tomorrow, I we can sit together on the bus again. Well, actually, I don't think my mom is going to let me ride the bus for a while, so maybe we can sit together during lunch or something. I'll ask my mom to make some brownies for you. Okay. Bye." And with that, she disappeared into the crowd of students and parents.
Jessie leaned back on the gurney.
Today, he sat and listened to the Flaming Monkeys with Jordan Winslow, carried her books, had been blown up, saved by Superman, who give him his cape, and had a lunch date with Jordan when he came back to school.
"Definitely the best day ever!" He thought to himself.