She lifted the roller door, slowly. Apprehensive, yet curious, everyone stood as close as they dared, peering into the garage, hoping to glimpse the bizarre, frightening creature trapped within.
It took a painfully long time for Bella to completely open the garage. No one could blame her for being cautious.
The shark that had been so aggressive the day before simply swam a leisurely circuit around the inside perimeter of the triplets' garage.
"Hey, Beautiful," Dean said with a soft gentleness that surprised the others. Slowly, non-threateningly, he approached the now calm sea beast.
The shark's beady black eyes seemed to flick over and focus on the tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired teenager.
"Does he understand you?" Ty asked. Though still wary, an undertone of awe entered his voice.
Dean nodded, a slight movement of his head to show his agreement. "And 'he' is a 'she,' by the way."
"Do you think you can get some answers out of our girl here?" Ethan asked. "Like, who's behind this? Why she's flying? What is going on?"
"Hey, I have to get her to trust me before I start interrogating."
"Okay, okay, take your time," Bella said. She turned around to see an old white van stopping by the kerb. "I think we need to attend to other matters, anyway."
Caleb and Ty stayed to watch Dean converse with the shark while Bella and Ethan left to meet the newcomer.
Rust switched the van's engine off as they approached. No one really knew how he came to be in possession of the vehicle, but no one questioned it, either.
"Okay, I got here as soon as I could. Is something going on?" he said, climbing out the old van. "Caleb sounded a bit excited when -" Rust abruptly stopped, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of a large, Great White shark idly swimming around the inside of a garage. "What...?" he attempted to ask a question but trailed off, dumbstruck.
"It's actually a really funny story," Bella said, unsure how to begin the retelling.
"Kid, I was a teenager once, too. 'It's a funny story,' is just a cute way of saying, 'We messed up, big time,'" Rust countered, not once shifting his gaze away from the sea predator.
"Well, first of all: it's not our fault the shark's flying," Ethan pointed out.
"Second: it's such a ridiculous story that it is actually funny," Bella finished.
Rust walked up the driveway to get a closer look. Ethan and Bella followed, quickly relating necessary details of the story to their mentor. By the time they had reached the garage, Rust knew everything right from when the friends first saw the jellyfish floating near Crashton Beach.
"Where's Painter?" Rust asked, suddenly.
"He had to go to work, today," Bella answered.
"And what exactly did you kids think you were going to do with a shark in your garage?" Rust questioned, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head ever so slightly, mimicking the manner of a very unimpressed parent.
"It's not my garage, it's theirs," Bella clarified, pointlessly.
"And... we didn't really think of what we were gonna do," Ethan admitted as he started trying to reorganize the trashed garage. "It was Jack's idea. You know how he is..."
Rust sighed, shook his head and crossed his arms, much at the same time. Surprisingly, his exasperation grew milder. "Well, I did worse when I was a kid. Lightfoot? What does the shark say?"
"It's Lightbody, sir," Dean corrected.
"You really don't have to call me 'sir.' I have in no way earned that title."
"It's kinda weird. Sometimes I can understand her, but a lot of what she says sounds like... okay, it's sounds crazy, but it's like she's speaking an alien language."
Rust suddenly seemed to snap to attention. "You mean, she speaks a language you don't know?" he prodded for a further explanation. "Like Spanish or Greek?"
Dean shook his head. "No. Look, it's difficult to explain, but animals don't speak languages like English or whatever. Their languages are unique. Supers who talk to animals - like me - can automatically interpret what animals are saying. I don't have to learn their languages, I just know them all. And it doesn't matter if they're sea creatures, birds, reptiles, land animals... I can understand them all. But she," he gestured to the shark continuing to calmly circle the gathered humans, "is speaking gibberish."
Rust frowned, seriously considering Dean's statement. "And you said it sounds... 'alien?'" he eventually enquired.
Dean shrugged his shoulders and held his hands up, defensively. "Hey, I told you it sounds crazy."
Rust shook his head, tersely. His expression was strange, like he was trying desperately to figure out an intense puzzle. "No, no: it's not totally crazy. Something like this happened before, actually."
"A bunch of kids on summer vacation trapped a flying shark who spoke an alien language in their garage?" Bella said, sarcastically.
"No, of course not," Rust said, looking at Bella as if she were crazy. "It was a cow and it wasn't trapped in a garage, but it did speak an alien language."
The teenagers stared at the older hero, expressions of disbelief and confusion contorting their young faces.
"Does he expect us to believe him?" Ty whispered, loudly, to Ethan.
"I'm not kidding," Rust insisted. "Thirty or so years ago, my old team and I stopped a full-scale alien invasion. It happened way before any of you were born and the Superhero Community did a fantastic job of covering it up in the media. But it happened."
"Jack may have mentioned something about that," Bella conceded. "He's really into superhero history."
"We were about your age, back then," Rust continued. He began pacing as he related the story, incidentally following the shark around. "These short, squishy, ugly, purple alien guys were trying to wipe out humanity. But there weren't a lot of them, and they were smart enough to realize that, if it came down to a fight, humans would win purely by outnumbering them. So, the aliens (frankly, I can't remember what they called themselves) used their advanced technology to gain the upper hand.
"I don't know how they did it, (alien tech was never my thing), but they somehow created an army out of all the cows in the country. People started getting suspicious when their cattle went missing. And then came the reports of cows flying and attacking people." Rust paused his retelling to chuckle and shake his head as he remembered the events. "It was the strangest thing I have ever dealt with. Whatever those aliens did, it made the cows a thousand times stronger, faster and far more aggressive than your average farm animal.
"Long story short, we stopped the aliens, returned the cows, and the whole show never made it to the six o' clock news."
"How did you know the cows were speaking alien?" Caleb questioned.
"Well, like I said, we cornered one. And we had a friend who could read minds and thoughts. Animals, as well as humans, have thoughts."
"So, what: do you think it's another invasion attempt?" Bella asked.
Rust shook his head. "No... those aliens won't come back. They got their butts kicked by a bunch of teenagers. Aliens don't normally like that. I didn't know they left any of their tech behind, but they did drop everything when they scrambled to leave. I'll have to call Urban Danger. I think he -"
A sudden, loud crash interrupted Rust.
Immediately alert, everyone whipped around to see the source of the abrupt noise.
The shark seemed to stumble clumsily away from a pile of Mrs Black's art supplies, now scattered all over the garage floor, bright paint splattered across the creature's snout.
Dean wasted no time in rushing over to the shark. He crouched down next to the sinking creature.
"Guys," he said, frantically. "Something's wrong!"
The others rushed over.
"What's going on?" Caleb asked, genuinely concerned.
"She says she's not feeling well," Dean replied, frantically.
"Wait a second, I thought we just established you couldn't understand her," Ty piped up.
"She's making more sense, for some reason! I do
n't know!" Dean said, not at all caring about explaining. His attention was solely devoted to the ailing creature.
"We need to get her back to the water," Rust said, urgently. "Now!"
"But she was doing fine in the air before," Bella said, confused.
"After a while, the cows started to revert back to normal," Rust hurriedly explained. "They stopped flying and they lost their strength and aggression."
"Is that what's happening?" Caleb asked, both puzzled and afraid as he watched on.
"This shark will die if we don't get her back to her home, right now," Rust stressed.
"You heard the man!" Bella said, loudly, resolutely. "Move it!"
13
As if a switch had been flipped, the triplets, Bella, Dean and Rust sprang into action to save the sinking shark.
"I need a tarp and rope: lots of rope!" Rust yelled. "Now!"
Caleb responded, immediately. Frantically, he searched through the trashed garage, hunting for the aforementioned supplies.
"Whose car do we use?" Ty asked.
"We can't use a car," Rust said, immediately. "One: none of us are actually qualified to transport a shark; two: no one's car is big enough; and three: there's no time for any of that. Bella, call Painter. He's the only one who can fly."
"Yeah, so can you," Bella said, under her breath, whipping out her cell phone and speed-dialling her neighbour. She didn't mean for the once-great hero to hear her comment, but she'd forgotten, momentarily, that, although some of his abilities weren't what they used to be, his enhanced senses had not disappeared.
Rust ignored the snide remark and focussed on the situation.
"Ethan, you're our egghead and, Dean, you're the animal expert: anything you know that can help us right now, spill it," Rust said, tersely.
Both Ethan and Dean floundered, the stress and pressure proving a bit too much for them.
"Uh... I..." Ethan stuttered, fluttering his fingers frantically, as if the action would help his brain recall information. Dean only mimicked Ethan's flustered stumbling speech and gestures.
Suddenly, something in their brains seemed to snap at the same moment, as their faces equally lit up and they both blurted information, in sync.
"Cartilage!" Ethan exclaimed.
"Sharks' skeletons are made of cartilage," Dean expounded. "They can't support their own weight on land."
"And they're sensitive to electromagnetic signals," Ethan added.
"Good, good, good," Rust said, quickly. "Keep 'em coming, fellas."
~~~
Ever since he could, Jack worked to help support his mother and little sister. At times, it felt like a bit much to pile one more responsibility on the shoulders of a kid who already had school and superpowers to worry about. But Jack couldn't complain: after all, he had a good boss and the hours were reasonable.
But today, he wouldn't mind calling in for a day off. He'd rather be with the others, working on the strange case of flying sea creatures than riding all around Crashton, delivering pizzas.
In the carpark of Crashton's favourite boardwalk situated pizzeria, Maniac Pizza, Jack secured a stack of piping hot, aromatic cardboard boxes on the back of a motorcycle. He reached for his helmet and that's exactly the moment his phone began ringing.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew they'd call him. He knew his team would keep him updated.
With subtle excitement, he answered the call from Bella.
"So, how's it go -?"
"Get here right now, Mission Control," Bella snapped. Over the line, Jack could hear the urgency in her voice. "Things are going south."
"Yeah, okay, I just have one more delivery and then -"
"We need you here five minutes ago," Bella stressed. "Just... hurry things up."
Jack understood. He groaned, nonetheless. "You know I don't like using super-speed when I'm on the clock," he said in a low tone, afraid someone might overhear.
"And you know I wouldn't ask you to unless it was really urgent. Chop-chop."
With that, Bella brusquely ended the call. It took Jack a second or two to fully comprehend the terse conversation, in which he stood rooted to the spot, still holding his phone to his ear, absently listening to the hang-up tone.
Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he broke himself out of the spell and took action.
He grabbed the stack of pizza boxes, quickly glanced around to check if anyone would see and be stunned, then he took to the skies.
Like a bolt of lightning in broad daylight, he shot across the Crashton skies. In a fraction of a second, he arrived at the delivery address. With a surprisingly steady landing, he planted his feet back on the ground, right on the pavement outside the customer's house. He sprinted up the path leading to the front door and rang the bell, impatiently tapping his foot while he waited for an answer.
When the door opened, Jack ignored the shocked look on the middle-aged man's face. Instead, he continued his speedy service, exchanging a stack of pizzas for money.
"I only just... that's impossible... how did you -?" the customer stuttered.
"They don't call us 'Maniac Pizza' for no reason," Jack replied with a pleasant grin.
Dumbstruck, puzzled and shocked, the customer continued staring at the young man, even as he closed the door.
Jack waited just long enough to make sure no one would see him fly off, then he returned to the skies. Like a bullet, he shot through the summer sky, his sights set on the old fire station on the edge of town.
Bella ran from the garage to the front lawn to meet him. "The shark's turning back into a normal shark," she hurriedly explained to Jack as he landed, his arms windmilling to steady himself.
"And you need me to return him to the ocean," Jack concluded, scanning the scene and deducing what was going on.
"Her," Caleb corrected, from the other side of the garage. "It's a lady shark."
Rust positioned a bright blue tarpaulin underneath the sagging shark. Speedily, he weaved a rope through the holed edges.
"Be careful with her," Ethan told Jack. "She doesn't have bones like us, so be gentle."
"But fast," Dean chimed in. "She can be crushed by her own weight."
The irony was not lost on Jack. Not even twenty-four hours ago, this very shark had been viciously chasing him through the skies above his hometown, striking a fear into his heart he would not soon forget. And yet, here he was, risking his own neck to rescue her.
One glance at the exhausted, struggling creature, and any trace of bitterness he could have dreamed up evaporated.
With a careful combination of speed and tenderness, Jack rose into the air, swooped down, gathered up the ropes, lifted the tarp until it securely cradled the sea beast, and flew away.
In the air, his mind worked over time, taking into account what Ethan told him while trying to work out a perfect altitude and speed.
Jack fixed his sights on the glittery, liquid horizon. He wouldn't stop for anything.
Time felt slow and sluggish as he flew, and without him realizing, a small part of his mind drifted to memories.
It seemed whenever Jack was in the middle of a rescue (something he'd only begun doing recently), his mind played with him, recalling memories of his superhero father.
John Painter died when Jack was only ten years old, frozen immortally as a dauntless hero in his son's mind. While alive, John did what he could under the gamma accident ban, conditioning his son to resolve to be a hero, too.
John also shared stories of great heroes with his son. Jack remembered every single one, and, right now, realized he only ever knew of heroes who saved other people. He couldn't recall his father ever sharing any stories of heroes dropping everything to save a creature that had somehow been altered and turned into a rampaging beast.
But this was no less a great deed.
Every life is a life, and they are all precious.
Jack flew out over the ocean, far away from surfers, anglers, stray swimmers, jet-skis or boats.
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Cautiously, he set the tarp down on the waves and released the shark into the water.
Holding his breath, Jack waited for a sign the ocean predator was safe. When the shark seemed to spring to life under the water, he let his breath out.
He stayed, hovering over the water, watching the shark take stock of her surroundings. Maybe he couldn't understand animals the same way Dean could, but he still knew she was happy.
Feeling relieved, Jack returned to his friends. "She's home," he announced. "Home and happy."
Cheers of success rang out amongst the small group.
But even as they clapped each other on the back and shared their relief, everyone knew, without saying a word, that they were far from the finish line in this story...
14
Urban Danger: the only Global Director of Hero Education and Training in all of history that ever managed to be so intensely and so widely hated within such a short time of holding the position.
It hadn't been longer than four months since he took over the role of Global Director from his late father, Samuel Danger. So much had changed in that short time-frame.
He, alone, managed to do what countless others labelled impossible. Within the space of two months, he liquidated the ban on the notorious gamma accidents, allowing them to, once again, save the day without fear of superhero officials running them out of town. And the younger gamma accident generations could now attend Hero High and Hero College, and receive the necessary training to better use their abilities.
Oh, how the Board loathed him. Jaws stiffened, eyes narrowed and fists clenched whenever Urban Danger started talking, because he very quickly developed a reputation of modifying anything and everything.
Accustomed to the old, strict curriculums, standards and procedures, the teachers and members of the board that loyally supported his late father came very close to sparking an uproar every time he tried to pass a new change.
Urban, sitting in his office, shamelessly resting his feet on the large, somewhat tidy-somewhat messy wooden desk, laughed, cynically, to himself as he thought about the long list of enemies he acquired during each and every painful board meeting.
He had no choice: his father designed and sustained a flawed system. Urban Danger knew that for years - decades - and always desired to change it to suit, not his needs, but the needs of Hero students all over the world.