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Here it is, my first story posted here. It's about a superhero I made up, and have written a few more stories about. I really hope to write comic books about her someday.
Note: Uisce is pronounced "Ishka".
So, I begin to write:
“My hero is Stephanie Brown, also known as The Spoiler and the fourth Robin, from various Batman comic books.” Okay, that’s a start. Where do I go from here? Why is Stephanie my hero?
Beep. The bell goes off. Class is over; school is over. The teacher reminds us what our homework is, but it is unlikely that many of the kids hear him. As I walk through the door and into the crowded hallway voices flood my ears. Ringing in my head is the trivial words of my peers. I hear cracking voices going on about their weekend plans. My ears pick up feminine voices speaking harsh words about So-And-So What’s-Her-Name. I think they direct one at me. I look back and see two girls acting nonchalant, then look back at me with a face that says “What?” They were probably laughing at my hair. I never get the chance to brush it these days. I just have bigger things to worry about.
It’s raining today. Perfect, I think, and I smile. I think I’ll walk home. Who knows, I might run into my friends on the way.
“Hey, Meredith! Wait up!” Wow, my timing was perfect. I turn around and see my friends: Kara, Nicole, and Felix. I think Kara was the one who called out. I stop for them to catch up. Once they do, Kara gives me a big hug. I love my friends. I really wish I could tell them.
“You guys ready to watch Avatar tonight?” Nicole asks with excitement. It’s Friday? Already?
“Of course!” Felix replies, “Mere, it’s your turn, right? We’re watching at your house?”
“Uh, yeah,” I say, hoping nothing gets in the way, “if you guys bring the snacks.”
A police car, an ambulance, and a fire truck zoom by, one after another. “I’d better get home, guys,” I say, my eyes fixed on the vehicles, almost hypnotized.
“Um, okay. See you—“ I run off before Kara can finish her sentence. I follow the three cars until they reach their destination. I stare, shocked, at the burning building. I’ve only seen things like this in cartoons. Paramedics are taking stretcher after stretcher of wounded people, but I have no idea what the police are doing here. This is unreal…
Before anyone sees me, I hope, I find a good hiding place to change into my costume, in an alley behind a dumpster. I’m already wearing the scuba-like suit beneath my regular clothes, so I just need to put on my blue t-shirt, blue skirt, boots, and goggles. I put my bangs in front of my face, too. How do they do this so fast on T.V.? I’m just wasting time!
I’m finally ready. I race towards the building. Wait. What am I doing? I need water. How could I forget that? Look around, fast. What can I use? I’m such an idiot. In all this excitement, I forgot that it’s raining. I focus on the rain. Focus. Focus. I can do this…
Little by little, I gather up drops of rain and clump them together. Faster, come on… I eventually have a giant ball of water hovering above my head. I release a small portion of it on myself and run in. I hear voices from the fire fighters. “What are you doing?” One shouts. “Crazy kid, get back here!” Shouts another. I’ll be fine… Right? No, I can’t think about that. Focus on the here and now.
I think my asthma’s acting up. Note to self: add pockets to costume for inhaler. Between my coughing, I hear cries for help. “Hello?” I shout. “Where are you?” Cough.
As I wonder aimlessly, the cries get louder, so I must be getting closer. I use small amounts of my water on the fire as go. Finally, I see four people. Three kids and their mother. They’re terrified. I’ve never seen anyone so scared in my life. “My name is Uisce, you’re going to be fine,” I reassure them. “Follow me; I’ll get you out of here.” Remember to smile. I move back and they follow. Window. Look for a window. There’s one on the other side of them room. I continue to put out the fire as I go. Once we’re there, I search for a way to get them down. Something startles me.
“Need a hand?” A girl, dressed in green and black and wearing a mask over her eyes, is standing right outside the window, eight stories up. How is she doing that? I take a closer look and see that she’s standing on a rock, floating in mid air. I feel light headed as I look out the window. I despise heights. What am I doing here?
I snap back to reality. “Can you get them to safety?” I ask pointing to the family. She nods, adds more rocks to her platform, and invites them on. Before they go down, I include “There will be more.” She nods again. With a stomp of her right foot, she levitates the rock downward. I’ll ask her name later, there are more important matters to attend to right now. She’s helped me out before, though.
I continue to find more people in the scorched building, and continue to get them to safety. Every now and then, I run into a body. At one point, I see a whole family. Dead. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I work my way up the structure, and when I get to the top floor, I hear one last plea for help. “You’ll be okay, I’m here to help you,” I get closer and put my right hand on the young woman’s shoulder. However, I feel a sharp pain in that hand all of the sudden. “Ow!” I shout. Her fingernails are digging into it. What on earth is she doing? I’m helping her!
With a swift, smooth movement, she turns around and twists my arm. It shouldn’t bend that way. The pain is so biting I lose concentration and release all the water I have left. Oh God, what was I thinking? I can’t do this…
“W-who are you?” I demand as I try to hold back tears. This hurts more than when I cut my finger on that soup can.
Her voice has such a sinister tone, she sounds like a cartoon villain. It’s smooth, confident, and threatening all that same time. Almost sardonic. “Just someone seeking a little fun,” She says. No, not almost. Very sardonic. She has the widest smile on her face. The biggest I have ever seen outside of Batman. What was I thinking? Did I actually believe I could be a Real World Superman? How am I any different from those little kids who jump off their roofs trying to fly? I…I’m going to die here…This is it…
She must see the fear in my eyes. She continues. “Not to mention, I’ve been so eager to meet you…Uisce, is it?” I take in a huge gulp. Don’t cry. Stay strong. “You’ve been all over the news, Miss Urban Legend. People all over the country want to know about the young, female Poseidon of the North West,” She pauses for a moment. “You like that title? I just thought of it off the top of my head!” She looks down and pretends to just notice that she still has me. “Oh, I’m sorry, does that hurt?” She throws me to the ground. I almost land in some fire. Cough cough.
I finally find the courage to speak. “You started this fire, didn’t you?” She nods. Think fast; come on. I’m near a window, and it’s still raining. Collect some water and…
“Hya!” A rush of water knocks her down, taking some fire out with her. I get into a steady fighting stance, but my legs are shaking. I’m still fighting to hold back my tears. To control my fear. It’s so hard, though. Please, I don’t want to die. I’m only fifteen.
Get a hold of yourself, Meredith! What would The Spoiler do in this situation? She wouldn’t give up. She’d stay strong. Stand her ground. She’d prove everyone wrong. My legs stop shaking.
However, my fear turns to anger. “All those people! So many hurt, dead, traumatized…And you’re enjoying this!” Focus. Don’t let your emotions get in the way. Gather more water. Give them a form. Spikes, that’s good. Now, freeze them. But don’t take your eyes off of—
POW! She punches me right in the face, once again knocking me to the ground. I don’t lose my ice sickles, though. I manage to get enough momentum to somersault backwards when I reach the ground. Now aim. Don’t hurt her. Just pin her to the wall. Here it goes…
SHOOM! Bull’s-eye! Now, keep them frozen as long as you can.
“Nice work,” The woman says. I finally get a good look at her. She can’t possibly be much older than me. Nineteen, maybe twenty-years-old. She has a very strong build; she clearly has more upper and lower body strength than I could ever hope to have. Her eyes alone are haunting. The amber of her irises could probably make Jack the Ripper fall to his knees and beg for mercy. Her pupils pierce through my spine. I can hardly move until I break eye contact.
“I’ll ask you again,” I say fiercely. “Who are you?”
She pouts for a moment. “Fine. You can call me Morana.” Her smile comes back, though it is now more of a smirk. Don’t let her throw you off. Stand your ground. Keep that ice frozen. I’m getting dizzy…How long have I been in here? In the distance, I hear footsteps—Fast footsteps—the footsteps of fire fighters, maybe police officers, too. I hope they can handle it.
“Hey!” I hear the voice of the girl from earlier from outside the window. I turn around and she motions me to come. I take one last glance at Morana, and once I see the professionals out of the corner of my eye I run to Rock Girl and, trying desperately not to look down, jump on the scary piece of floating concrete. With a few movements of her arms, we’re on our way to safety. I ask her to make a quick stop where I changed so I can pick up my stuff. This only takes seconds, and then we’re back on track.
When we land, we land in a nature park, surprisingly not too far from my house. I limp immediately to the nearest tree and plop down, leaning against it. I pant like I’ve never panted before, so I pull my inhaler out of my jeans pocket. Press down and inhale simultaneously, close the mouth, hold breath as long as possible. Exhale, and repeat. That feels better. Next, I pull out my watch and check the time. 4:23 PM. Not too shabby, but how do I explain this to my parents? “I had to stay after school to finish a test. I thought I told you last night, but maybe I forgot.” Sure, why not? That happens enough already. I hate lying to them. I just need a minute to heal and I’ll be on my way…
I look to my left and see Rock Girl, just staring at me with an innocent smile. She reminds me of Kara. “Thanks for the help today,” I smile. “I don’t even want to know what would’ve happened if you didn’t come to the rescue.”
“Anything to help the helpless,” She responds with yet another ear-to-ear smile, then looks at me very concerned. “Looks like that lady did a number on you.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m a fast healer.”
She examines my wounds: A fist-shaped bruise on my left cheek, and my right hand bleeding, are the worst of it. Other than that, I simply look like I just walked out of a fire, soot and ashes all over. “Here, I’ll be happy to help!” She gleefully insists. First, she places her hands just above my bruised cheek and breathes deeply: in through her nose, out through her mouth. Her hands begin to glow a light green color, and suddenly the pain’s gone. She does the same on my hand and the wounds close up.
“Wow, thanks,” I say, looking at my hand. There’s still blood on it, but I can easily wash that off. She gives a “you’re welcome” and smiles. “You know what’s funny? I have that same power.” Okay, not really “funny,” but interesting.
“Awesome! We could be a healing team!” She sits there for a moment, awaiting approval on her idea. When I don’t comment on it, she clears her throat. “So, uh, what’s your name? You’re superhero name, I mean.”
“Uisce. U-I-S-C-E. What about yours?”
“Ki,” She extends a hand out and I respond with a handshake.
“I really should get home,” I announce as I get up. “Again, thanks for everything. A lot of people are alive right now because of you.”
“You too, Mer—Uisce,” Ki stumbles over her words.
“Excuse me?”
“I said, ‘you too, Uisce,’ that’s all.”
“Yeah, I know. Well, see you later,” I wave and turn around and leave. I eventually find a good spot to change back into my civilian clothes. Before I do so, I wash off the soot in the creek right next to my chosen spot. When I’m done changing, I take out my cell phone. Five missed calls. All from home. I call back to let them know I’m okay and to feed them my lie. If my parents knew that I was actually fighting a psychopath in a building that was burning to ashes…I don’t even want to think about it.
After all, I could have died today. This morning may have been the last time I ever saw my family, the last time they ever saw me. I think I’m about to cry again. When I see my house, I take a deep breath, wipe my eyes in case a tear leaked through, and try to act as if nothing unusual happened.
Once I walk through the door, I see my parents in the living room. Both of them at their laptops. I can’t help myself. I run up to them, give them each a big hug, and tell them how much I love them. After I grab something to eat, I go up to my room. I should probably do some homework. I get out my English homework, my “Hero” rough draft, and I yawn. It’s no surprise that I’m tired. Just try not to…
“Mere,” Huh? “Meredith, wake up. Your friends are here!”
I open my eyes. It’s my little sister. “What time is it?” I ask, barely awake.
“7:48. Kara and Nicole and Felix are here. They’re waiting!” She tugs my arm to help me up. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just tired,” I assure her. Before going downstairs, I grab a sheet of paper and pencil. So I can jot down ideas for my paper. My experience today gave me some already.
I go downstairs. I’m greeted by my friends and I greet them back. It’s 7:50 now. Ten minutes to go. Then half an hour after that. Then maybe fifteen minutes to another half an hour more. Then I can sleep.
We talk, for these next ten minutes, about trivial subjects. Comic books, video games, cartoons, marching band, so on and so forth. At 7:59 we wait impatiently. The TV is on, and it’s on the right channel. It starts right on time.
We react: laugh when something funny happens, cry when someone gets hurt, panic when there is danger, cheer when the good guys when. We stare in amazement when they fight, we feel enlightened by the philosophy, we tap our toes in time to the music. Kara drools over the heartthrob. During the commercials, we imitate the fight moves and pretend we have the characters’ powers. I pretend not to have them while pretending I do. When it’s back on, we shush each other and the cycle begins again. For a while, I completely forget what happened today. Unfortunately, I also forget to write down ideas for my paper.
It’s 8:30. The show is over. We spend fifteen minutes talking about it. On the surface and in depth. Then we laugh about what dorks we are. We’re all so proud of it.
One by one parents come and take their kids home. We give a big group hug to whoever is leaving at the moment, then go back to our nerd talk.
The first to go home is Kara, who has a lot of homework over the weekend and wants to have it done by the time she hangs out with other friends. She’s very social. The kind of person who can fit in with anyone except for the superficial dunderheads.
Next Nicole has to leave so she can get to bed at a decent time, because she has work in the morning. She’s kind of the responsible one. Not the stereotype, though.
Felix is the last to be picked up. As he waits, my cat, Xander, walks up to him and demands to be pet. He says he’d love to just fly home. He’s a sort of dreamer. After a couple more minutes, his parents come and take him home. Xander’s disappointed.
I go upstairs with my pencil and bland sheet of paper. I want to just plop down on my bed and take a yearlong nap. I stare longingly at my bed with puppy eyes before I sit down at my desk and write a few ideas for my paper. I turn on some music to keep awake. The music from my play list labeled “Steph,” filled with songs that remind me of Spoiler. Hopefully that will give me some inspiration. I love that stuff.
Okay, ideas… I start writing them down:
Reasons why The Spoiler is my hero:
She’s determined. She’s determined. She’s determined…Come on, think!
Her costume was more practical than “sexy”. Well, that’s not exactly “heroic” to most people, but…
Steph was the first in-continuity female Robin. That, of course, is awesome.
She was portrayed as a real teenaged girl. I’ll need to elaborate on that…
Despite her unhealthy home life and constant discouragement from Batman, Stephanie kept her glass half-full, tried, and tried again! Ooh, nice wording.
Unlike most Bat-allies before her, she didn’t automatically master the superhero martial arts moves. She learned them over time, and grew into a competent fighter. Now that inspires me.
Yawn. That’s enough for now, I think. I can barely keep my eyes open. I stumble over to my bed and barely make it under the covers, and then…
“Wait…One more…”
The Spoiler, Stephanie Brown, lived and died a hero.
