First Superhero 1: The Second Super Read Online Free PDF Page A

cheering —for me. The sound was deafening.
    I lifted the hand that held Richter’s shirt into the air above my head, and that’s when the crowd really went nuts. They were going crazy, screaming at the top of their lungs, jumping up and down in joy. They finally had hope once again.
    I pumped the shirt up and down in the air and shouted myself. I looked across the crowd, and my glowing eyes met with my father’s. His mouth was wide open in shock, but when he saw I was looking at him, he smiled. He gave me a thumbs-up, and my heart soared.
    I looked back across the crowd, and began floating in the air once again. They were still going wild as I floated closer to the ground. I looked directly into the news camera and smiled. I flew through the air, away from the crowd, shouting and whooping for joy, the crowd still cheering in the background.
    Richter was no longer the only superhuman on Earth. There was now a second superhuman, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that the second Super was me.

THE AFTERMATH
    S O MUCH ADRENALINE flowed through my body, I couldn’t sit down. I paced across the living room floor, feeling light-headed and as if I was going to throw up.
    Mom sat on the couch, her elbows on her knees and her hands on her face. She stared at the wooden floor, searching it as if the reason for my sudden development of superpowers was somehow hidden in the cracks between the planks. Dad stood close to the television, watching the news report that contained the same footage that showed on every channel.
    “Bystanders watched in horror as Richter dropped seventeen-year-old Macy Westling over four stories at Ebon High School in Ebon, Indiana,” the news reporter Jane Tanner said, her red lips quivering in excitement. “That is, until another superhuman appears out of nowhere, and catches her.”
    The footage showed me flying out of nowhere, slowing our descent, and touching down on the ground. Even though I was standing in my living room terrified, I still couldn’t help but feel my heart skip with excitement as I watched what happened next in the footage for the hundredth time.
    I turned from handing off Macy and shot off screen. I didn’t even realize how fast I was going until I saw the footage. The cameraman was unable to keep up with me, and by the time he zoomed out and got me back in frame, Richter was flying through the air, righting himself, and giving me one last look before flying off.
    “Who is this new superhuman, and will he bring us the same troubles as Richter?” the news reporter asked. “To help answer that question we have joining us Tom Lance, former Head of Homeland Security, and Roland Peterson, host of the #1 talk show across America and self-proclaimed ‘superhuman expert.’ Gentlemen,” the reporter said, giving a slight head nod as the two video streams appeared on either side of her head.
    Even though they were going to say the same things I’d heard them say all night, I stopped pacing and gave the television my full attention.
    “Let’s start with you, Tom,” Jane began. “You’re saying that this complicates things more than helps, how so?”
    Tom, an elderly man in his sixties, cleared his throat, the loose skin beneath it shaking back and forth as he did so. “Now,” he said, “first of all, I’m not saying that this new development isn’t good at all. Clearly that’s not the case; just ask Miss Macy. However, it does complicate things a whole lot more! What are we going to do, let this new Super and Richter turn the world into their battlefield?”
    “Tom,” Roland interrupted, “right now the world is already Richter’s playground. At least if it’s a battlefield, that means there’s a chance at us winning!”
    Tom nodded. “Yes, that is possible; however we do not know if this new Super is even capable of defeating Richter. And even if he does, who’s to say that he won’t become the next Richter, huh?”
    “Regardless of what this new Super is