I’ll Be Your Hero

By Hannah Carter

The biggest risk of being a superhero was ending up a cliché.

Caspian had always mocked the stereotypical hero speeches he’d seen on the news, but now, facing his own villainous showdown in a closed pawn shop at midnight, well… it seemed like the only things he could spout were tired old adages.

“Gibs, please. This isn’t you.”

Gibs stared at him with hollow eyes. “I don’t know what’s me anymore. Heroes… villains… both are liars when it suits them.” She held up a finger, and a cell phone responded to her technopathic summons. All around her, various electronics swirled in what could only be called a technology tornado—a technado.

She thrust her hand toward him, and the phone hurtled at his head. He held up his arms, creating a fireburst that incinerated the projectile.

“You know this isn’t right,” Gibs said. A laptop whizzed by Caspian’s head, followed by an assortment of microchips and somebody’s old GameBoy. Caspian hurled fireballs faster and faster but missed a beat, and a sharp edge clipped his temple.

“Scientists are using babies and kids as test subjects and altering their DNA—killing them, even—just so the elite can get powers. And nobody will stop it because society is so infatuated with being superheroes!” Gibs’ voice rose. “And you’re just as bad if you cling to the blind praise of the masses when you know a real hero would do the right thing—even if he’s called a villain for it.”

Caspian grabbed a hologram recorder she’d thrown and crushed it in a fiery fist. “I’m just as upset as you are, but this isn’t you!” He hated sounding like some hokey comic book character, but it was true. “The Ripper virus has taken over you. You would never want to use your powers to seize control of heroes’ mind chips—especially not to make them kill civilians or other heroes!”

“This world needs a war if we’re ever going to save the kids.” Gibs glowered at him. “The guilty need to pay.”

“What happened to your plan to use the Ripper virus to hack into the systems and expose the experiments and murders to the public?” His voice cracked as he remembered the tears they’d shed over the children. “Can’t you see it’s corrupted your cranial implant and warped your personality?”

Gibs sneered. “I’m not corrupted. They are. The guilty deserve death for their crimes. They all knew about the experiments.”

“We didn’t.”

Gibs scoffed, but her entire being trembled. “Nobody even told me I had powers. That I was a test subject as a baby.” She plucked a broken memory chip from the technado and rubbed her thumb over its surface. “I could have just as easily been one of those kids if my mother hadn’t put a stop to it. The one time in her entire life she had any sense, even if she lied to me from then on.”

Caspian had crept closer during her diatribe. Flashes of their relationship flitted through his mind. Gibs had hurtled into his life a year ago, desperate to be his sidekick. Even when she’d thought she had no powers, she was determined to help people however she could, no matter what.

The ache inside him deepened. He had to remind himself not to loathe the girl in front of him. It was the stupid virus he hated. He despised how it had twisted her.

But he loved Gibs. The real Gibs.

That thought steeled his resolve as he transformed his entire body into a bonfire. His own powers rarely affected him—one of the perks of being genetically altered—but he winced at the bright blue fire.

Wow. He’d never hit blue before. His parents would be proud.

He crashed through the technado, arms spread wide. Gibs shrieked and pelted him with tech, only for most of them to sizzle into ashes. Some managed to make contact, but his skin was numb with fire and focus.

He had to time this perfectly, or one of them would die.

An instant before he tackled Gibs, he extinguished his flame. She yelped and struggled, but he crushed her to him, immobilizing her.

Until she started cackling.

“What—”

“You should have killed me.”

An old computer smashed against his skull, and his world turned fuzzy.

She was there. Inside the memory chips and wiring, inside his mind.

Her mental projection towered over his. “Oh, Caspian. Still think you can save the ‘real’ me?”

“Yes, because the real Gibs would never give up. There’s still part of you that the virus hasn’t destroyed. And that part will put a stop to this.”

“I’ve got you under my control, you know. How would you like to go on a murderous rampage? A popular, handsome hero like you that snaps—now that could incite an uprising. Might even end this delusional fascination with superheroes.” Gibs snickered.

It almost sounded like her true laugh.

Something flashed in the murky white void of Caspian’s mind. The memory of her laugh replayed for them both. Then came other snapshots: their first joint attempt at heroism, Gibs nursing his injuries, awkward early dates. Caspian let it linger on the starry night when he’d first said, “I love you.”

Gibs’ face twisted. “You don’t deserve that memory.” But something flickered inside her dark eyes.

“Then take it.” Caspian swallowed. “Maybe it’ll bring you back.”

She snarled and reached out to snatch the memory from his chip. She cradled the flickering, moonlit image in her hands as she studied it; her long, black hair hiding her face.

Caspian gasped as he came to in the real world, free of Gibs’ mind-control. Smashed electronics were strewn throughout the pawn shop, but Gibs was gone. “I promise.” He wiped away a smear of blood on his arm where a shard must have cut him. “I’ll save you. I’ll be your hero, Gibs.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Carter is just a girl who loves to dream and write, and still wakes up every day hoping this will be the day she figures out she’s secretly a mermaid. She currently has two published novellas, Amir and the Moon and Seashells. She has had over a dozen devotionals published in various magazines. She also won a competition with her short story “Lara.”

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