The Faceless Man, Part 5
The mask slips.
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: Ken arrived at a mountain resort run by two college friends. New Mount Olympus is a place for super-powered individuals to live in peace and isolation, and the community’s newest arrivals are three teenagers who are supposed to be in jail, including one of Ken’s students. Ken had assumed his friends only recently acquired their powers, but no, it turns out they’ve had their abilities as long as Ken has had his.
Part 5
“Ken, maybe you should step back and take a breath,” Hailey suggested as she carefully approached the masked man who had locked her boyfriend in a telekinetic grip.
Ken took a breath. A sharp breath. But he did not step back. He clenched his fists, wanted to throw one at Lance. He very nearly did. As a compromise, he lifted his old friend higher. The cocky speedster wasn’t so fast standing on two stories of empty air.
“It’s okay, hon,” Lance said, restoring his crooked grin and unconcerned attitude. “It’s Ken. He’s not going to do anything.”
Ken flung Lance into the volleyball net, wrapped it around him, and dangled him upside-down.
“You haven’t done anything,” Ken said, hands quaking. “For two years. You had these powers—these gifts—and you did nothing with them.”
The crooked grin resurfaced. “No, you saw me using that power.”
He did indeed witness Lance using his speed to pick pockets and rustle up enough cash to keep this resort running. All that potential, and he channeled it toward petty theft. Lance squirmed under the pressure; Ken hadn’t even realized he was squeezing.
“Please. We don’t fight here.” Hailey lightly touched his arm, steadying it. “We didn’t know it was you under that mask. If we had—if we saw you struggling against all those villains and monsters—well, we might have made some different choices.”
“Yeah,” Lance said, confidence prevailing, “if you think about it, the main reason we never became superheroes is because you hid your face from the world.”
Ken clenched his fists tighter.
Lance dropped to the dirt, and the net unwrapped and flipped him over. Ken waved a hand at the poles, and the net stretched back into position.
Mask clinging to his skin, Ken breathed in the stale air. “Take me to the kids now, or I’ll find them on my own.”
Lance nodded as he climbed to his feet, and Hailey opened a portal. All three stepped through and arrived near a large, clean pond.
The teens were there, lounging around on an old wooden dock. They seemed so incongruous hanging out in nature, without a single electronic device between them. They sprang to their feet the moment they heard the crunch of grass.
One boy generated a bioelectric bubble around himself. The girl split into three of herself, who all combined to create a single fifteen-foot giant. And Aiden’s hands glowed a bright blue.
“I’m not here to fight you,” Ken said, hands up and open. For a telekinetic, it was a symbolic gesture at best.
“He’s not,” Hailey said. “Just hear him out, please, and then you can decide whether you want to stay here or leave with him.”
“We’ve got nothing to say to you,” the girl said.
“Fine. Listen,” Ken said, “and think. How old is that dock? Can it handle your increased mass?”
Glaring, the girl split apart and reformed into her normal-sized self. But a pronounced frown emphasized how much she didn’t like it.
“Smart move … Persie, right?” Ken then pointed at the boy in the bubble. “And you would be Milton?”
“Milt,” the boy said, as though offended by his own name.
“Milt. Got it.” Ken addressed the final teen. “And you’re Aiden.”
Aiden scowled and said nothing.
“You do have a choice,” Ken said. “Let me take you back to jail. I’ll put in a good word for you all. You accept whatever sentence the courts give you. You do your time, and then you might have a chance to start fresh as adults and make something of yourselves. Or you stay here and spend the rest of your lives as fugitives. But what kind of life would that be?”
“Life on our own terms,” Milt said.
“It may seem that way now, but think about what you’d be giving up.” Ken looked at Aiden again. “I know you feel bad about hitting that helicopter. We can teach you to control your power and use it to help people.”
“Don’t act like you know me,” Aiden said.
“But I do know you.” Ken hesitated only another moment. Fantastic Man would chew him out for what he was about to do. But Fantastic Man was gone.
He pulled the mask off and inhaled the fresh air. The other two kids flinched in surprise. Aiden, however, flinched in recognition.
“Let me take you all back,” Ken said. “Let’s make things right.”
Persie, face scrunched in confusion, looked at Aiden. “You know Mr. Amazing?”
Tightening his scowl, Aiden projected pure contempt.
“He’s nobody. Just my tutor.”
Hailey and Lance turned to Ken, their eyes full of irritating pity.
“I’m sorry,” Hailey said, “but you have your answer.”
Ken pulled the mask back over his head just in time to prevent his own eyes from betraying any wounds.
“Then here’s how it’s going to be,” Ken said. “This place is your prison. You stay here. You do as you’re told. I will be checking on you regularly. You all have a lot to learn, and I am determined to make sure you learn it. Are we clear?”
The kids stared dumbly.
“Answer him,” Lance barked.
“Yeah, got it,” Milt said as they all shook their heads.
“We’ll talk more later,” Hailey said. “You can go back to what you were doing.”
The three adults turned away and strolled up the hill.
“This place can do a lot of good for them,” Lance said. “They won’t turn into supervillains here.”
“They won’t turn into heroes either,” Ken said, wearing a concealed frown.
*****
They exchanged contact information before Hailey sent Ken home. As he left, he promised to help them figure out better, more legal funding options. They didn’t entirely dismiss the possibility.
He was only a few minutes late for his first tutoring session. It went fine, as did the second. They were good kids who didn’t need him.
As the sun descended, Ken put on his costume and flew to Terrific Hall, where he was free to take off the mask. He sat at the triangular table in the hollow room, quietly sipping black coffee. He knew it was late for such a beverage, but the caffeine helped focus his telekinesis.
A gentle breeze blew through the open skylight, and Miranda floated down, the scarlet cape of Ultra Woman billowing out behind her.
“That’s going to keep you up all night,” she said.
“That’s the idea.”
She peeled her mask off, restoring her natural appearance. It was nice to see a friendly face. “Everything okay?”
“I was going to ask the same of you,” Ken said. “You seemed a little off your game yesterday. Wasn’t like you.”
Miranda leaned against the table and gazed at the immaculate marble floor. “I had to go to the moon recently. There was a cat up there. A weirdly strong cat. I …” She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, perhaps a futile attempt to bar the memory. “I had to kill the poor thing.”
Ken set his mug down. “Tell me all about it.”
Next: The Second Dimension