When the first real life superhero appeared outside the studio, it began simply enough.
A white-haired man, 61, sang "Footloose" in a talent show. He imitated many of the moves Kevin Bacon made in the movie, except he also added a brief moonwalk. Women, young and old, screamed with delight while men applauded their respect.
The man did it all without sweating, without any obvious signs of exertion.
When he reached the part of the song about how you could fly, he spread out his arms and soared over the audience. Polite applause followed. It's like the people in the audience were thinking, "Look at that. The 61-year-old man is hanging on wires." Some of the young people sat back and laughed.
But then gasps followed, eyes widened, and even some of the young people rose to their feet. The man twisted and twirled like a frenetic ice skater in the air. How could he do that without being sliced by wires?
Illusion, some insisted in their minds even as they were on their feet staring.
Abruptly, the man disappeared. When he reappeared, he was on stage lifting a car over his head. All this coincided with the music sting from the song but hardly anyone noticed because of all the shouting, screaming and gasping. When the man and the car disappeared, people stormed the stage.
Luke was the first reporter to arrive. When asked about the incident, people backstage insisted there were no wires or gadgets involved, no tricks. In fact, the stunts, like flying and lifting the car, had taken them completely by surprise. Those things were not a part of rehearsal.
Then there was the car itself. Apparently, the car had been taken at random from the parking lot, and the owner of the car insisted he had never agreed to the use of his car for such a thing.
Later Luke followed the online comments. There were skeptics and cynics, already called 'superhero deniers" by some, who insisted the organizers of the talent show just made all this up to get free publicity. There was the question of how publicity helped after the show was over.
Soon the "superpowers problem" became difficult to deny. News reports cropped up, not just in California but all around the nation. Muggers and bank robbers would get thrown around or suffer from memory loss or both. People would juggle other people. Clowns and trapeze artists flew around at circuses.
People with powers were out there. The problem was, at this point only small pockets of people had powers; others were without powers.
Something would have to be done.