I had serious doubts about William.
How could I impress upon him, without revealing the truth about Nolan of course, the deadly necessity of keeping my superpowers a secret?
What could be a good reason?
I should be glad that because of how I’d been revealed, we couldn’t talk right away.
It gave me some time to come up with an elegant solution.
A clever lie.
You know, the main character of a story should have that resourcefulness, that cleverness that lets them get out of the tightest spots unscathed.
Right?
Damn.
***
William showed up at my house the morning after the robbery.
At an hour when all normal kids are still drooling on their pillows, finishing their dreams.
We always had a rule: no guests in the house.
It was because of Dad.
He didn’t want to risk being seen in his costume when he returned from a mission.
But this time, Mom made an exception for me and let him come up to my room.
Dad gave us a disapproving look but didn’t argue with his wife.
Besides, right after breakfast, he was off to his publisher to discuss his new book with his agent.
Today was supposed to be his day off from superheroing, unless something catastrophic happened.
The Guardians could handle it themselves.
He decided to take care of his official work.
Sometimes I’m amazed at how much Dad took on and how little he expected from his wife.
I know for a fact that Nolan never took money from the government or his colleagues.
Robot and War Woman are obscenely rich and sponsor all the Guardians’ activities.
They’d offered Nolan a helping hand many times, but he always refused.
And despite spending most of his time on Omni-Man duties, he still fully supported our family with his second job, leaving Mom only to keep the house in order and cook.
He called this workaholic mode a vacation compared to his life before Earth.
Anyway you look at it, this union is hardly equal.
Unless Nolan really does see Mom as a pet.
For me, Dad’s constant busyness was only a plus.
As soon as I got upstairs, I immediately closed the curtains and turned on the music.
Precautions so no one could overhear us.
Call me paranoid, but the bugs I’d found in the ventilation were real.
For those guys in the Global Defense Agency, no personal boundaries or standards of decency exist.
“Ooh, so serious,” William said sarcastically, watching my preparations.
Then, shaking his phone, he continued, “And why didn’t you answer?
I called you yesterday.
Whoa, what a look, dude?
Don’t look at me like that!”
“Because this isn’t a phone conversation.
I told you to calm down and wait.” William had tried to call me last night.
Right when Dad and I were watching a show on cable.
Of course I couldn’t answer with the main reason for all this conspiracy right next to me.
And you shouldn’t discuss anything related to my second home, I mean Viltrum, not the USSR, over an unsecured line.
Not to mention the Global Defense Agency, which, since they bothered to plant bugs in the vents, was undoubtedly tapping every phone in this house.
“Easy for you to say, ‘calm down.’ You don’t find out every day that you live next door to a superhero.
Hey, what’s your power?
Are you just fast, like that guy from Russia, or can you do other stuff?
Can you fly?”
This guy was too energetic, as if he’d been the one who got superpowers.
“William, you have to promise me you won’t breathe a word, not one goddamn word, to anyone about what you saw and what you’re about to hear.”
“But I…” he started to object.
“Otherwise I won’t tell you anything, and I’ll deny everything you think you saw,” I interrupted.
“No!
You can’t do that to me!” He was shocked.
“I saw it with my own eyes!”
“And what did you see?” He couldn’t have seen much.
I moved too fast.
“More importantly, who would believe you?
So either promise, or…”
I nodded toward the door.
“What’s wrong with you?” But when I didn’t answer, he finally agreed.
“Fine, I promise.”
If only I could be sure his word meant anything.
William must have sensed my skepticism because he decided to expand his oath, adding details and a bit of confidence to his voice.
“I promise I won’t tell anyone that my best friend has superpowers and is a paranoid jerk to boot.” And sarcasm.
“Hmm…”
“What now?
Tell me what your powers are.
Where did you get them?”
And here’s the hard part.
That’s too crazy.
No one should know that.
Even revealing the secret of Viltrum and my father is too soon, especially to someone like William.
“You’ve probably heard that the government is looking for ways to create super weapons, super soldiers, mass-produced superheroes?” I began my inspired lie.
It wasn’t really a lie, actually.
Not at all.
It was all true.
Rex went through a similar project as a kid.
Eve is a genetically engineered super weapon of the government.
It just had nothing to do with me.
But I didn’t have to tell William what he could figure out himself.
“You mean…” William perked up.
“Yeah, I mean some of those projects aren’t fiction.
Though the world usually doesn’t know about the real victims.
No one benefits from that.
They don’t want publicity themselves.
Most of those projects inevitably fail, but there are exceptions.
And exceptions among exceptions.”
“Huh?
Can you talk normally?
I’m lost.”
“Sometimes it happens that the people involved in these projects, sometimes even the ones in charge, realize the gravity of their crimes and try to make things right.
For example, they fake a failed experiment and swap the newborn super weapon into a family that lost a child at birth.
So no one ever suspects.”
“Oh.
Holy crap.
And you’re one of those projects?” He bought it.
Looks like he bought it.
“But there are always suspicions,” I continued in a conspiratorial tone, ignoring his question.
“Government people suspect the deception.
They sniff around.
They search, and search, and search.”
Yes, I shamelessly stole Eve’s story.
But I never said it was my story.
So technically, I wasn’t even lying to William.
“I can’t show my powers.
No one should know I have them.
Not the government, not the press, not even my parents.
Right now, only two people know, you and me.
And that’s how it has to stay.
Can I trust you?”
“I’m a grave!” William’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“Can you fly?”
Oh, hell.
I knew what he was thinking.
***
But in the end, this incident had positive consequences for my life.
I’d even say the pros outweighed the cons.
The only con was the risk that William might still blab to someone.
But maybe I was underestimating him.
As for the pros…
William’s help turned out to be invaluable for my training.
Now I wasn’t using him in the dark.
He was always ready to cover for me and help explain my disappearances.
Fortunately, he understood that I didn’t even risk flying alone, so after about the tenth refusal, he stopped asking for a ride.
And just having someone to talk to who knew my secret was nice and useful for my sanity.
We just didn’t discuss the government, since I didn’t want to twist myself in knots telling more lies.
“But you’re not going to hide your whole life, are you?” William asked one day as we rested after my ocean training and his trip to the comic book store.
We were at a park fountain, eating ice cream.
It was one of the last days of vacation, unseasonably hot and muggy for autumn.
I don’t fear heat or cold, but this muggy weather wasn’t for me.
Everyone else felt it worse, except ice cream and air conditioner vendors.
They were happy.
“Of course not,” I answered.
“When I’m strong enough, I’ll be able to act more openly.”
“Uh-huh.
Have you thought about putting on a costume right now?” William suddenly asked.
I looked at him like he was an idiot.
I can’t reveal myself.”
“I mean,” William continued, as if ignoring my look, “your abilities, strength, speed, flight, aren’t that unusual.
No one would immediately recognize you.
It’s practically a standard set that, to one degree or another, every fifth hero has.
Immortal, Kid Thor, War Woman, Red Phantom, Black Samson, Martian, the list goes on.
Omni-Man, for that matter.”
“You do realize you just named the strongest heroes on the planet, right?” I answered.
“Except Thor.
And can he fly?”
“He can’t?” William was surprised.
“Damn, I don’t remember.
He’s cosplaying the God of Thunder from the myths.
Gods should fly.
Anyway, you get my point.
You don’t have to show everything you can do.
There are plenty of teen teams you could join.”
“No!” I interrupted.
“No teen teams.
Absolutely not.
No.”
“Oka-a-ay,” William drawled.
“But even if not on a team, make yourself a fully enclosed costume so no one sees your face.
You could, say, give up flying to not draw too much attention.
Or hold back your strength.
Or come up with some legend that doesn’t tie into your real power.
Like you draw energy from the sun.
Why not?
Draw a huge sun on your costume and come up with a motto.
Then those government guys definitely won’t connect you to their project.”
I pictured myself in a costume, somehow resembling medieval armor, with a giant sun symbol on my chest, striking a pompous, stupid superhero pose from old comics, shouting some motto like “Praise the sun!”
“That’s…” I shook my head, shaking off the vision.
I wanted to say it was all complete bullshit, but suddenly realized I couldn’t really argue with him.
“It makes some sense.”
I thought hard.
Really hard.
I was taking risks with my training anyway.
Over the summer, I’d already run into representatives of the underwater people twice.
I’d even found a large sea monster.
I didn’t fight it because it was sleeping peacefully three hundred miles off the coast of Japan.
But a couple of smaller, more aggressive ones I did send to feed the fish.
Yes, so far I’d managed to swim away from the fish people’s scouts faster than they could catch me or summon their king, that guy’s pretty fast underwater, maybe even faster than me.
And I’d defeated the monsters that attacked me before anyone noticed the aftermath of an underwater battle.
But the risk is growing.
That’s a fact.
The idea of something flashy that would make my image far from Omni-Man’s was also good.
Shame I didn’t think of it myself.
But the sun doesn’t work.
Half the planet already thinks Omni-Man got his strength from our star.
“Really?” William was surprised I’d approved his idea.
“Except for the costume.” I can’t go to Art Rosenbaum.
Even if he doesn’t know me by sight now, he might guess.
“I need to find a good costume maker.”
Arthur is the best, but he can’t be a monopoly.
There are heroes from other countries, lower-tier ones.
They must buy their gear, including costumes, from someone.
Worst case, if I can’t find a normal, reliable tailor, and I have money for a costume, I could ask Eve for a favor.
For her, turning even everyday clothes into a superhero costume is no problem.
“Wait, you’re really going to do this?” William got excited.
“Become a real hero?”
“Maybe,” I still said uncertainly.
“And then you won’t have to hide anymore!” William kept persuading me.
“Yeah.”
“You’ll be able to fly whenever and wherever you want!” Strong argument.
But I’d still do it far from Dad.
“Something like that,” I agreed out loud.
“And you can give me a ride.”
Son of a bitch.
He got me after all.
I hope it doesn’t end like last time.