Daylight [SuperHero Novel]

[YMM]

The day of her funeral, I was angry. I smiled because she would have wanted me to, but every time I looked up, my gut clenched at the unfairness. I held my sister Lexi's hand, dragging her with me as I talked to people. Lexi was taking the loss harder than any of us; my father and I made sure she was never alone, especially not here.

"Julius! Alexandra! I've been looking everywhere for you two!" I sighed as I turned around to face Florentine Bulat, my mom's best friend, who happened to be the retired superhero "Knockout." Florentine was a short Persian woman, dressed as if a rainbow blew up on her, as per my mom's requirements for anyone who wanted to attend. I loved Florentine, everyone did, but she also had a reputation for being a bit… much, even for me.

"Lovely decorations you and your father put together, the flower arrangements are to die for." The conversation around us died out as everyone turned to look at Florentine, Lexi's hand gripping painfully as she death-glared the five-one wrecking ball. The look of shock on everyone's faces finally broke me as I started laughing. Florentine grinned victoriously. "See! Julius gets it; the rest of you need to lighten up, you all know she's laughing."

"It's good to see you, Aunt Flora," I said as I reached in for a hug. "Thank you for coming."

"I would have come even if you had a sign on the door that said 'No Aunt Flora's allowed," she scoffed. "Jokes aside, you two really outdid yourselves, the flowers, the food, the decorations, even the smells, all her favourite things, I'm sure she absolutely loves it. Shame it had to rain, ruined the skylight you two bought the venue for." My teeth clenched at the reminder, of course, today of all days it had to-

"Stop acting like she's still here," Lexi spoke up. "She's gone, acting like she's right beside us, won't suddenly make everything okay." She turned to walk away, but I pulled her back in and put my hand over her mouth.

"Sorry, everyone, angsty teen in action, excuse us for a moment." I gave Florentine an apologetic look before pulling Lexi away. I dragged her to one of the backrooms before telling her to sit down.

"We don't have to go back out there, you know?" I said softly. "If you'd rather stay here with just us, we can do that." I went to sit beside her when she nodded. I leaned my head on her, much, much shorter head.

"You're not funny, you know." She drawled dryly, then she put on the highest voice she could muster. "'Angsty teen in action," Lexi squeaked.

"Why is my voice higher than yours? That doesn't even make any sense." I chuckled as I bumped her with my shoulder.

"'Cause you're a wimp."

"Okay, time to be quiet," I grumbled. I ran away from one fight, and she hasn't let it go. I didn't even run! I just walked away, like my bad for not wanting to get punched because I accidentally knocked some guy's trophy down.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while. The room was small; the only things in it were the small couch we were on and a desk. Other than the window that my eyes kept drifting to, it was exactly what we needed.

I heard a light knock on the door as our dad, Mark Martin, walked in, who, despite being six-one with blond hair and blue eyes, didn't see fit to pass down any of those genes to his only son.

"I heard what happened." Dad sighed as he sat on the floor across from us, or Lexi, more specifically, "She's not gone, you know?" Dad's eyes drilled into Lexi; his vivid blue eyes could be incredibly unnerving when he was focused.

"Dad no-"

"Let me finish, Lex. Your mother was the most amazing person I've ever met, and frankly, the woman was never wrong. She was more certain that we would meet again than of her own name, and until then, we keep her alive in our memories, in the way we celebrate her life and the way she lived." Lexi stayed quiet as my dad got up. "I'm not going to make you go back out there, but I'm sure your brother would appreciate your support for his big speech."

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The venue felt weird without any music; all the songs that my mom loved were about bringing joy, and without them, it was harder to pretend that everything was okay. I felt hundreds of eyes land on me. I've never had stage fright before, but I couldn't help but be nervous this time. I felt my eyes prickle seeing Lexi's small thumbs up in the back.

"Alayna Martin, my mother, often told me she was a mother first, and everything else second, but as much as she would protest, I have to disagree. Mom is the most amazing, beautiful person I think I will ever meet, and looking around today, at the number of people she's connected with, I can't help but think she was being modest. There are hundreds of us here, but I have no doubt she knew each of our favourite colours, how to make each of us feel better, and how to celebrate with each of us. Mom told me she didn't want today to be one of sadness…" I looked at the skylight, and the damned rain that's been pouring all day, today of all days. We made sure to pick a day with no chance of rain, and yet as soon as the morning hit, it was pouring. I felt my mind straying from the speech I memorized.

"My mom hated the rain, always said it made her sad," I said softly. Today was supposed to be one of celebration; it was supposed to be her day. Yet, by some curse, it was raining. Despite all their eyes on me, I kept looking up, through the rain, through the clouds. I looked at the sun, asking, begging it to make the rain stop.

It listened.

 

[YMM]

A beam of light enveloped me, the sun's rays forming a beacon toward the sky. The light was bright enough to blind anyone who looked at it, yet I could feel the light restraining itself for my sake. The crowd faded away as I poured my entire being into pushing the clouds away, away from me, away from my mom, away from everything.

"-lius, JULIUS!" I fell to my knees as Florantine pushed her arm through the light, shaking me awake; the light vanished as I fell.

"We need to go. Now," Florentine said, the most serious I've ever seen her. Mustering all my strength, I tried standing up, but I wobbled as the world closed in on me. The last thing I noticed was her blackened arm as I passed out.

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Groaning as I woke up, my attention was drawn to the TV a few feet away from the couch I was sitting on.

"Breaking news: a newly emerged super has been recorded manipulating what appears to be pure light to disperse the cloud cover over Metro Vancouver." Officials estimate the displacement to be equivalent to moving 5.6 billion kilograms of water, achieved in just seconds, placing our unknown super in class Titan.

"Lex has been playing that on repeat, waiting for you to wake up." My dad chuckled as he walked into the living room with a cup of coffee, his blonde hair glistening annoyingly in the sunlight…

Never mind.

"How long have I been out?" I rasped, making a gimme motion for the coffee. My eyes fixated on his unusually unshiny hair.

"About two days," Dad answered, handing me the coffee. "Florentine said that's to be expected for ascensions, though." That took a bit to set in, I realized, of course, but hearing it out loud was a reality check.

I had superpowers.

"She always called you her little sunshine, you know? One more thing she was right about." Dad smiled softly in the way he always did, talking about Mom. It feels like I've seen that smile a million times in the past few months.

"Do you think Mom gave me this?" I asked, instinctively summoning small streams of light around my finger, playing with them as I looked at Dad.

"She gave birth to you, kid. Alayna gave you those powers one way or another." He said, sitting down beside me, "But I wouldn't put it past her giving you one last gift before heading to the afterlife." I sat with him for a bit, both of us watching the light in my hand, trying to figure out what I could do with it. I could tell he wanted to ask questions, to experiment, as he always did after finding something interesting. He probably didn't want us to destroy the living room either.

"She would be so proud of you, Julius. You've become a better man than either of us ever imagined." I stayed silent as he continued, "You've always been the first to offer a helping hand; there's no one more fitting than you to have these powers."

"Thank you," I whispered, leaning in to give him a hug. "This all seems surreal. No one actually thinks they're going to get superpowers." I could feel the light around us, the light inside me waiting for my command.

"I guess a secret identity is off the table?" I asked. There were hundreds of people at Mom's funeral; the chances of all of them keeping it a secret were next to zero. Not that secret identities were very common anymore, targeting a cape's civilian family put you on everyone's shit list, hero and villain alike.

"Let's save those questions until your aunt Flora gets here. She's very excited to give you the 'superhero' talk," he smirked, What the hell is a superhero talk? Knowing Aunt Flora, it's probably something with costumes. "At least you finished high school before becoming a superhero. I can't imagine trying to get you to class when you can literally fly away." My dad paused suddenly, looking at me intensely. "Can you fly?"

Can I fly?

"Mom would want us to see if I could fly as soon as possible," I nodded.

Dad nodded with me, "She would be upset if we weren't in the yard testing it out right now." I don't think I've ever seen us head towards a door faster in our lives.

Unfortunately, as soon as I got near the door, it slammed straight into my nose.

"Superhero 101! Demigod class hero Knockout here to teach you how to kick butt! And fill out insurance forms!"

"You could have broken my nose." I winced, grabbing my very slightly aching nose, which should have honestly hurt a lot more.

"First lesson!" she yelled triumphantly, "Surprise attacks!"

There was a loud pop behind me, and rainbow confetti rained all over me. I turned around to see Lexi holding the confetti popper like it was a trophy. I'm so not cleaning that up.

I turned back around and looked closer at Florentine. She was dressed like a substitute teacher, a white button-up, a grey blazer, and huge glasses. Florentine pulled out a pointing stick as Lexi wheeled in a squeaking whiteboard. Giving her a questioning look, the fifteen-year-old shrugged, "She gave me two hundred dollars."

Florentine took that as her cue to continue. "Superhero 101 is divided into three parts! One, Superhero basics! Two, Learning your powers! Three, Training!" I smiled as she pushed her glasses up like an anime character. "Superheroes are divided into four tiers! The tier is decided at ascension!

"Everybody already knows this," Lexi deadpanned.

"Let me have this, Alexandra, please. I've had a couple of days." Seeing Lexi raise her hands in surrender, Florentine continued. "Anyway! Although the pure power level of a power cannot change, heroes constantly find new and creative ways to use their powers! The Class system is as follows," Florentine said, pointing to the whiteboard.

Olympians — Their presence changes the world

Frequency: 1 in 1,000,000,000

Titans — Neighbouring states feel a significant impact from their presence.

Frequency: 1 in 10,000,000

Demigods — A city's major player

Frequency: 1 in 100,000

Champions — Can accomplish the supernatural

Frequency: 1 in 5,000

"The news said Jules is a Titan?" Lexi leaned in eagerly; she was almost more excited about this than I was.

Florentine nodded in agreement, "Correct!, The amount of power he displayed the other day is more than I've felt from a Demigod; that's the same feeling I get from Titans." As I looked at the whiteboard, the light inside me bristled, insulted at the comparison, offended at being compared at all, that the light, that the sun, was stronger

 

[YMM]

"Next! There are rules to being a superhero!" Florentine nodded profoundly, "The most famous rule being never to target a super out of costume, or their family."

Back when ascensions first started happening, most superheroes modelled themselves on old comic book characters and hid their identities. More than one of them lost their family in attempted blackmail attempts. It was when GoldenBoy had his family killed by a villain that the rule took off. Over 10 thousand Supers showed up to kill the villain; his name was erased from the internet.

"Rule two! Avoid escalation! If a villain is aiming for incapacitation, keep it that way! If you initiate deadly force, so will they, and it's not just your life on the line." At the mention of fighting supervillains, my dad and Lexi tensed up. I can't blame them, honestly. I would be acting the same way if we were talking about either of them being in danger.

"I'll be fine," I tried smiling encouragingly. "Actual villain attacks are rare anyway; heroes are basically glorified first responders." They both calmed down a little at that. It was true, with heroism becoming so systemic, there wasn't much incentive for ascendants to fall into villainy, and those that did were often too weak to accomplish anything.

Florentine backed me up, "The casualty for heroes is lower than the rate for police officers. Julius will be exceptionally safe in a guild." Seeing my Dad's shoulders relax, the exuberant woman moved on. "The last rule! Stay out of nonpowered wars; this rule is the only one backed by the government. 'Superpowered individuals are forbidden from partaking in conflict involving a country's unpowered military.' This rule exists purely to prevent mutual destruction; entire countries would fall if an Olympian stepped in."

The rule was reasonable, but there is no reason in war. Even if it brought the wrath of every super on the planet, I wouldn't let innocent people die. I felt the sun's power fill my body, fierce warmth encompassing me, sharp light begging to burst free from my skin.

Ah.. I will end up needing to break a rule, won't I, Mom?

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"Welcome to Eagle's Eye!" Florentine presented; she drove us all the way over here, refusing to tell us where we were going, except that it would 'help me master my true self.' "This was my guild back when I was active," she continued, "Eagle's Eye works directly with the RCMP; they have more investigative supers than the rest of the west coast combined. The guildmaster also owed me a favour and is letting Julius use the training room," She smiled cheekily.

"Aunt Flora, you're amazing," I laughed, training rooms at big guilds like these were always built by tinkerers, meaning I didn't need to worry about injuring anyone while I tested my powers.

"If you can't do anything cool, im gonna be so disappointed."


"And what's your super power, Lexi?" I asked her back.

"Not being a twink."

"Children, please stop talking so I can watch my son fly."

I actually think the rest of my family was more excited about this than I was. We pretty much forced our way past reception and into the training room. My family was taken into a room beside us, with tinker-reinforced glass, to watch us from. Florentine and I stood in a room that seemed entirely made of foam when another person walked in.

"Julius, this is my friend Rue. His power lets him experience time differently, which makes him amazing at noticing details in new ascendants' powers." The hero in question was in a full hero costume, he had a mask that covered the bottom half of his face, blue and grey tactical armour and black cargo pants.

"Hey, it's nice to meet you! Thank you for helping me with this." I smiled, extending my hand. Rue gave me a slight nod, shook my hand, then turned invisible.

"He's always like that, don't worry," Florentine said. "Now then! I don't think you've actually explained what your power is yet."

I hesitated, unsure how to explain "I am the sun." I felt my sanity wane as Lexi's voice came in through the intercom.

"Poke him."

And now Florentine's poking me.

"He doesn't feel like the sun," Florentine confidently stated towards the glass.

"That's not how it works," I sighed.

"Just throw a fireball, Jules."

And now Dad is on the intercom.

Deciding to give them what they want, I turned towards the target dummies, feeling the heat in my chest. I thought of the sun's flames. Roaring heat that can take life just as easily as it gives it, no need to go overboard, just a cool orange flame.

A ball of orange fire erupted in my hand, only warm to the touch, and with a thought, it was sent flying towards the target. The ball went straight through its chest and landed in a hard-light baseball glove I conjured behind it.

Dispersing the glove and fire, I wrapped myself in a layer of invisible, hard light and lifted off the ground, facing the glass. Light enveloped my back, making it look like I was floating in front of the sunrise.

"Let's te-"

"Frick!" I yelled as I jumped away from Rue. I had completely forgotten about him; that scare had to be on purpose. My family turned on the intercom so that I could hear them laughing at me.

"You almost looked cool for a second," Lexi heaved between laughs.

"As I was saying," Rue interrupted, "We need to test the strength of your light constructs. The constructs materialize much faster than your fire, and have much more utility; you need to know how much stress they can endure." The bastard then handed Florentine a hammer larger than she was!

"Make sure to block Julius!" Florentine yelled as she swung at me.

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"Huh," Florentine said, her hammer making no progress on my shield.

"We don't have anything, or anyone here that can hit harder than KnockOut," Rue explained. "Your light is exceptionally strong."

"Maybe Aunt Flora is just getting weaker," I joked. Florentine laughed with me before she punched me in the face.

Shit that hurt!