As the Superpowers Problem increased, our world was more and more in need of protection.
For example, there was the bank where this happened:
"Everyone down on the ground! Now! Move! This bank is being robbed!"
After the man in the mask yelled, there was the reaction from the people at the bank. There was the initial shock and quick panicked mental adjustment then most of the people quickly got down on the floor.
One man, however, stood leaning against the ledge of the central teller booth. He had a very casual, bored, disinterested look on his face, which continued even after a weapon was pointed at him.
"Hey! You deaf?" the tall man in the mask shouted. "I said down on the-"
The leaning man seemed to vanish. Yet when the tall man whirled around, he found that bored-looking man, no longer leaning, stood near the main exit, a good safe distance from any of the four masked men.
"Hello, Mr. Bank Robber. Welcome back. Thought we'd lost you there for a moment."
The bank robber moved to lift his weapon, only to find his hands empty of any weapon.
"Hey! Where's my-?"
"Weapon? Don't worry. All your weapons are somewhere safe."
All four bank robbers looked back and forth, their hands empty, their weapons gone.
"What are you?" the tall bank robber demanded. "You some kind of speedster? Time-controller? Memory-wiper?"
The only answer he got was to find himself tied to the other three with a string of flashing twinkling Christmas lights.
"I cause people to zone out for a few minutes," the casual man explained calmly. And casually, of course. "The boring part is where you just stand there in a daze. The kind of fun part is getting things all set up while you're in a daze. The really fun part is when you snap back to normal."
The bank robber strained against his bonds, which were flashing on and off in colorful patterns.
"See? I even had time to plug in the Christmas lights."
"Congratulations," Mr. Bank Robber growled.
Lifting his index finger, Mr. Casual casually stepped forward. "Here's a question: Who robs banks anymore? Especially when people everywhere have superpowers. Ever heard of computers? You could drain an account without running into a single super-powered person."
A woman stepped forward. "I can make him tell the truth. Kind of like Wonder Woman without her golden lasso."
She placed a hand on his head. The man spoke in an angry rough voice.
"Our weapons temporarily paralyze people. We thought we had an edge. Plus, we were doing it for the thrills, the kicks, the challenge. There isn't much of that anymore."
The woman wore a smug grin at first but then she looked sad as she stepped back. Then she was out of sight, and the mind-manipulating man was gone as well.
At first, Mr. Bank Robber thought the man had slipped away at super-speed. Then the would-be bank robber realized that the mind-manipulator had caused him to zone out once again.
The police were already there.
While Congress continued to debate the Superpowers Problem, as they had for months, a small drama played out at a school in Bismarck, North Dakota. For the Superpowers Problem had reached even that area.
"Hey, Jimmy! You're stupid." The dark-haired chunky kid was named Bobby.
Jimmy, in contrast, was small and thin and light-skinned. In addition, he sported a bowl haircut with wild straw-colored hair sticking out above wire-rimmed glasses. The only thing sadder than a kid wearing glasses was a kid with glasses and weird hair.
It was even sadder when he was getting picked on.
"You hear me, Jimmy? You're stupid!"
"Okay," Jimmy said casually and quietly. He may have shrugged his shoulders; it was hard to tell because his shoulders were usually hunched up.
"Your stand-up comedy is stupid!"
Jimmy nodded as he stopped to organize some papers.
"I'll keep working on it, you know? I'll keep trying, see what I can do."
"Why bother?" Bobby sneered. "Your stories are stupid, too."
"I'll do what I can on those, too," Jimmy muttered, putting his piles of papers in an attache case. "I'll keep working on them."
Bobby had four guys who followed him around everywhere, and they laughed as Bobby taunted Jimmy.
Jimmy had the incredible privilege of going to school where he was able to meet horrible terrible awful people he would otherwise make an extraordinary effort to avoid.
"Don't bother trying," Bobby sneered. "You won't get any better. I'll just take whatever you do and throw it in the garbage."
"Okay," Jimmy said and walked on.
With that, Bobby knocked the attache case out of Jimmy's hand. For a moment, Jimmy just stared while the Four Guys whooped loudly. With a sad grim look on his face, Jimmy moved to pick up his case. Bobby kicked it away.
That was when Bobby made a terrible mistake. He pushed Jimmy and knocked him down. As Jimmy lay on the ragged rocky uneven black surface, Bobby laughed and lifted his arms, looking much like a triumphant King Kong. The Four Guys laughed uproariously.
Something happened to Jimmy just then. He thought of all the years of being laughed at by Bobby and the Four Guys. That was when something rose up inside Jimmy.
And then Jimmy himself rose up. His face was all scrunched up, and he roared out these words.
"I don't understand why people have to be so CRU-U-U-UEL!"
The smirk on Bobby's face vanished. It gave way to a look of utter shock.
Jimmy grew into a large adult-sized giant, blond-haired, bulky, clothes all torn up.
And he roared loudly.
The Four Guys took off running. That left just Bobby.
Giant Jimmy grabbed Bobby and threw him into a wall.
A girl named Peggy stepped forward and threw out a force field.
"Jimmy, you don't want to do this," she said. Pleaded. Urged.
Giant Jimmy roared all the louder but he could only move a short distance because of the force field.
After thirty minutes, police gathered around. Even though Peggy told them a force field was in place, the officers looked nervous. Probably because a world where people had superpowers made their jobs a lot more difficult.
There was also the question: How long can this little girl hold a force field in place?
At last Jimmy's dad arrived, and he held up his hands as he talked quietly and calmly to his son. It seemed like he had done this before, and he just talked to Jimmy about normal everyday stuff, happy stuff, fun moments, He even made a few joking comments. No dad jokes, though.
As the smiling father went on, Jimmy stopped roaring. His features changed, and he began to shrink. Finally, he was back to his normal form.
As Jimmy was taken away by police and Bobby in an ambulance, the Four Guys sneered.
"Talking someone down like that? So overused."
"So cliche'."
"It's lame."
"Not the way he did it."
Stuff like that was happening at schools all over the nation. The Superpowers Problem definitely needed some kind of solution. Maybe many solutions.