Not wanting to disclose his powers to too many others before he had a chance to talk with his dad, Luca called up Caleb after school. The boys met up in a secluded spot in the local park.
"Alright, I've made a list of every superpower I can think of" said Luca, handing his friend a long sheet of paper "Let's see if I'm developing any of them. You check off the powers if you think I might have them. Of course I could always develop more powers later on, but I want to see what I'm already capable of maybe without realizing it."
"Okay" replied Caleb with a grin "I think we'd better get started!"
"Super hearing!" read out Caleb, directing Luca to tell him what various people in the park were talking about. With little difficulty, Luca found he was able to distinctly hear any conversation in the whole park that he focused on. "Check!" called out Caleb as he ticked it off his list.
"Super vision!" ... this time, Caleb directed Luca to look up at a distant airplane and describe all the passengers he saw through the windows. Luca surprised himself with just how well he could do this, almost effortlessly focusing his gaze through each individual window and describing what he could see inside. "Check!"
"Shapeshifting!" ... Luca closed his eyes and imagined becoming a dog as hard as he could. "Is it working?" he asked. "Nope" replied Caleb, crossing it off his list "I'd say that one's not a check. Let's move on."
"Flying!" ... Luca happily demonstrated his ability again for his friend. It seemed that each time he did it, flying became a little easier ... "Check"
"Teleportation" ... Luca concentrated on disappearing and reappearing behind his friend, but it didn't work ... "Not check"
"Super Healing" ... Caleb took a needle and tried to prick Luca's skin with in. Try as he might, though, the needle wouldn't pierce the skin. The boys looked at each other in confusion for a long time ... eventually, Luca agreed to allow Caleb to stab his arm with a knife. Again, though, the knife wouldn't go through his skin no matter how hard Caleb pushed on it. Even when Luca stabbing himself as hard as he could, there was no way he could make the knife go into his body. By the end of their experiments, Luca was completely unharmed but the knife was looking somewhat blunted. "Let's put a question mark next to that one and check off super durability instead" said Caleb. Luca nodded in agreement.
"Time travel!" ... Luca tried to go back in time to see when Caleb had woken up that morning. Again, though, nothing happened. "Not check"
"Super intelligence" ... Caleb took one look at Luca ... "Check"
"Super speed!" ... Caleb had Luca sprint around the track of the field as fast as he could while he timed. Luca was a blur as he set off, darting around the field at speeds that left bystanders in awe. Luca was just concentrating on running, until he noticed that he was going faster than the cars on the road beside him. He slowed down a little to avoid attracting too much attention before returning to Caleb. "How fast was I?" he asked. Caleb just stared at his timer in disbelief ... "Let's just check that one" said Luca, who wasn't even remotely tired from his sprint.
"Telekinesis!" ... Caleb asked Luca to make an acorn float with his mind. Luca concentrated really hard, but it wouldn't budge. "Not ch..." began Caleb - "WAIT!" interrupted Luca "I could swear I just made it move!" ... Luca kept concentrating and Caleb saw that the acorn was indeed moving a little from side to side, but it was such a small movement he had hardly noticed. "I guess I'll put a question mark next to that one" replied Caleb.
"Intangibility!" ... Luca jogged against a tree, hoping to pass straight through it. The reaction was as expected, and Luca fell to the ground as the whole tree shook and buckled from the heavy impact. "Not check" replied Caleb.
"Super strength!" ... the boys made for a creek near the park, where a heavy old log had fallen. With some strain, Luca lifted the log and carried it out of the ankle-deep creek. "Wow that was heavy" he said, drying his feet and putting his shoes back on. "It's heavier than anyone else around here can lift - they were going to get a digger in to pick that up, you know" replied Caleb "I'm checking it."
"Underwater breath!" ... Luca held his face underwater and, throwing caution to the wind for a moment, let a big gulp of water into his mouth. It felt like he was choking at first, but when he breathed the water out again, it began to feel more natural. After about a minute, air bubbles stopped coming out with his breaths and Caleb came to check on him, but Luca was completely fine breathing underwater! "No wonder you're so good at swimming ... Check!"
"Mind reading!" ... Caleb picked up playing cards from a deck and asked Luca to read his mind and find out what cards he was seeing. At first this was easy as Luca could see the reflection of the cards from the glint in Caleb's eyes with his super vision, but then Caleb hid the cards behind a bush. Luca concentrated on Caleb's mind as hard as he could ... thinking about what Caleb would be thinking about right now ... and took a bit of a guess. "King of hearts?" he asked. "Yip" replied Caleb. The boys repeated the experiment a few more times and each time, Luca's "guesses" proved right, much to his own surprise. "Check" replied Caleb.
"X-Ray vision!" ... This time, Caleb had Luca concentrate on the bush itself, rather than his mind. Luca stared at the bush, trying to see past it ... and shocked himself when the bush started to disappear before his very eyes! He was so startled that he lost his concentration, and the bush reappeared, so he had to try again. It felt like an incredible rush, to know he must have developed some of these powers a while ago but never thought to try them. Each time he did it, it became much easier for him to do as well. Needless to say, he correctly named every card. "Check!"
"Invisibility!" ... Luca closed his eyes and concentrated. A gasp from Caleb let him know it was working! "Hey Luca, take a look at yourself!" said Caleb with a chuckle. Luca opened his eyes and couldn't see himself or his clothing at all! "Woah - this is so cool!" he said, peering all around where his body should be. Then, ever so slowly, he made himself visible again. "I think that power is one of my favorites" he said. "Check" replied Caleb.
"Fire breathing!" ... Luca tried to make a small fireball come out of his mouth. He noticed his breath was a bit warmer than usual, but no fireball. "Not check"
"Enhanced combat!" ... Luca stood across from a Karate master at a local dojo. He saw the master lunge at him almost in slow motion - and with superhuman dexterity, Luca ducked out of the way. It was as though he somehow knew exactly where to push the master to make him fall down - in a swift motion, Luca had the black belt squirming on the ground, pinned down by Luca's super-strong foot. "Check" said the karate master.
"Enhanced beauty!" ... The boys went down to a local modelling studio for a tryout. Caleb was quickly rejected, but Luca was immediately offered a large sum of money to model a brand of underwear. As he walked on to the set, the underwear showing off all his best features, the photographers were stunned and offered him a large bonus to entice him to come back again. "Check" they all said together.
A few more tests later, the boys were lying on the grass in the park, watching the sunset.
"That was pretty amazing" said Caleb "Already you've got more powers as a kid than just about any superhero. If you keep developing powers and honing the ones you have, you'll be like a god!"
"Yeah, I guess so" replied Luca timidly "I mean, using my powers is fun and all. But being just a regular kid is pretty nice too."
"You mean, you don't want to have powers? Be a hero? Save the day?"
"Of course, but I'm thinking of people like Macie. People who try so hard but will never be as good at these things than me. They need to know that they matter, too."
Caleb sighed. "Don't worry about her. She's just jealous, that's all. I'm sure once you get established as a superhero, even she'll come around."
"You think?"
"I'm sure of it. Now - let's go home. I'm sure your dad must be waiting for you."
Luca smiled. "Thanks for helping me out, I appreciate it" he offered.
"Anytime, super-buddy" replied Caleb "See you tomorrow!"
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
