The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 1

Chapter Six-2

“That's because the Lightning Triplets are not currently the target of one of the world's most dangerous supervillains,” said Dad, folding his arms across his chest. “Your Mom and I want you to live a normal life. But as long as Master Chaos is after you, you will need to learn how to use your powers for self-defense.”

“What's so bad about being a superhero?” I said. “They save lives all the time and even the whole world on more than a few occasions. Why wouldn't you want me to live that life?”

“Because it isn't as glamorous as it seems,” said Dad. “Anyway, I do not want to talk about this with you any further. Instead, we are going to begin training right away, unless you want to continue arguing with me, and you know you can't beat me in an argument.”

I would never admit it, but Dad was right. The only person who had ever beat him in an argument was Mom and I am pretty sure that the only reason she won that argument was because Dad let her. My chances of beating Dad in an argument weren't very high.

So I said, “All right. So where are we going to do the training? Here?”

Dad once again shook his head. “No. I don't want you wrecking the basement or house with your powers. Instead, we're going to a place that I think would be perfect for you to practice your powers in secret, without drawing any unnecessary attention to us from people who don't need to know about them.”

“Where?” I said.

“You'll see,” said Dad. He walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “We're going to teleport there, so get ready.”

I nodded and mentally prepared myself as Dad reached for his belt and turned the dial on it.

In an instant, the basement of our house vanished and we were standing in a wide-open, hilly field under the hot Texas sun. I looked around the area, smelling the scent of fresh grass, but did not see anyone else in the area save for us. I looked up at the sky, but it was also empty, except for a few scattered clouds.

“Where are we?” I said as I looked at Dad, who had removed his hand from his belt and was now looking around the area like he was trying to make sure were alone.

“This is a field several miles outside of town,” said Dad. “I found it during the week when I was waiting for your super suit to come in. We're out in the wilderness and there's no one nearby for miles. That's good because I didn't want anyone accidentally stumbling upon us while we practiced.”

“How long are we going to practice?” I said.

“Until dinner,” said Dad. “That's what I told your Mom. She'll call me when dinner is ready, so once she calls, we'll leave and resume tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. I looked up at the sky again. “I'm going to try to fly again.”

I jumped into the air, but again fell to the ground. I looked up at the sky and scowled at it.

“Why can't I fly?” I said, looking at Dad again. “It's not that hard, is it?”

“It's not as easy as it looks,” said Dad. “But we're not going to focus on that at the moment. Right now, we're going to focus on your super strength.”

“My super strength?” I said. “Dad, I already know how to use it.”

“No, you don't,” said Dad, shaking his head. “Just because you have used it twice doesn't mean you know how to use it whenever you want.”

“Oh, yeah?” I said. “What does that mean?”

Dad sighed, like I was being intentionally dense or something. “Consider the two scenarios under which you have used that power. What are the similarities?”

I frowned, thinking about how I had used my powers so far. “Well … the first was when I punched Robert through the cafeteria wall when he was threatening to beat me up … and then the second time, when you were using the Detector to scan my brain.”

“Good,” said Dad. He tapped his forehead. “But I want you to think about why you used your powers. What was it about Robert or the Detector that made you use your super strength?”

I thought about that. It was kind of hard because I wasn't used to this level of introspective thinking. Dad already seemed to know the answer, but I knew he wasn't going to share it with me, at least not until I gave him my best guess.

Finally, I shrugged and said, “I dunno.”

Dad sighed again. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

“All right,” said Dad, who was sounding frustrated now, although he was clearly trying to hide it. “In both circumstances, your emotions became too much for you to handle. When you punched Robert, for example, you were feeling angry at how he was treating you and how no one else backed you up, didn't you?”

“How did you know?” I said in surprise. “I didn't tell you how I felt.”

“I can tell because I'm your father,” said Dad. “And also because I know, from my experience with other young neoheroes your age, that it usually takes a strong emotional reaction for their powers to manifest the first time.”

“And the second time,” I said, quickly catching on to Dad's line of thought, “the Detector was starting to hurt me and that was making me angry and worried.”

“Precisely,” said Dad. “So what conclusion can we draw from these two situations?”

“That I need to be feeling negative emotions to use my powers,” I said. I clinched my fists. “Become angry.”

But Dad shook his head. “Wrong. The correct conclusion to draw is that you need to gain better control of your powers so you can use them for your benefit. When you punched Robert, you ended up becoming Master Chaos's number one enemy; when you broke the Detector, you cost me a lot of money. In both cases, you didn't really benefit, did you?”

I flushed when Dad mentioned that the Detector cost him a lot of money. “I didn't mean to break it.”

“That's fine, but you do agree that both situations didn't work out well for you, do you?” said Dad.

“Yeah,” I said.

“So you need to learn how to control your strength so you can use it to your advantage regardless of what situation you find yourself in, instead of reacting to your negative emotions,” said Dad. “That is what we are going to be doing today.”

“Today?” I said. “You make it sound like we're just going to focus on super strength and nothing else.”

“Of course,” said Dad. “It is currently the only power you have any access to and it is the one that would be most helpful if Master Chaos attacks. It is much harder to gain access to a power you haven't used before than it is to practice a power you already do have access to.”

“So when will I learn how to fly and use my super speed?” I said.

“When you have completed your super strength training,” Dad said. “Anyway, enough talking. Let's get you started.”

I didn't like Dad's vague answer, but it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to give me anything more detailed than that. So I looked around the field again, which was still flat and empty.

“What am I supposed to use my super strength on?” I said. I gestured at the field. “There's nothing to pick—”

A loud boom echoed behind me, causing me to whirl around to see a huge metal block resting on the earth just a few feet away. It was twice as tall as me and ten times as thick, but I didn't know where it had come from. It certainly hadn't been there even a second before, otherwise I would have noticed it. It was impossible to miss.

Then I saw that Dad's hand was resting on his right gauntlet, which displayed a keyboard of some sort.

“That is what you will lift,” said Dad, pointing at the metal block like it had always been there. “It weighs two tons, but I think you should be able to lift it pretty easily if you are as strong as I think you are.”

“Where did it come from?” I said. I looked at the sky, but didn't see anything that might have dropped the block.

“Another pocket dimension,” said Dad. “I put the metal block in there for safekeeping. Once we're done for the day, it will go back into the pocket dimension until we need it again.”

“Wait, so you can access pocket dimensions with your gauntlets?” I said. I looked at them with more amazement than before. “What else can they do? Cure cancer?”

“Not yet, unfortunately,” said Dad with a sigh. “Regardless, you must now try to lift the metal block with your super strength.”

I looked at the metal block again. It looked really heavy, probably heavier than anything else I'd tried to lift in my life, but if I had super strength, then it should be easy to do.

Then I realized I had a problem and I looked at Dad again. “How do I access my super strength? Am I going to have to get angry again or something?”

Dad shook his head. “No. You should never rely on your emotions to control your powers because emotions are highly unreliable. Instead, you need to focus on accessing that strength and using it to achieve your objective.”

“Focus?” I said. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Walk up to the block, close your eyes, and then visualize yourself being strong enough to lift that block above your head,” said Dad. “If you can't see yourself doing it, then you can't do it. But if you can see yourself doing it, then you can do it.”

“You sound like one of those self-help books Mom always reads,” I said.

“Just do it,” said Dad. “Trust me. It will work.”

As skeptical as I was, I decided that Dad probably knew what he was talking about better than me, so I walked up to the metal block and stood before it. Bending over, I slipped my fingers underneath it and tested its weight. Yeah, I couldn't lift it even half an inch off the ground, but I hadn't focused yet, so I closed my eyes, just as Dad said.

In my mind, I imagined myself lifting the metal block off the ground and raising it above my head. I looked pretty cool, showing off my awesome muscles as I hefted the block above my head with no problems. In fact, in my imagination, the metal block weighed almost nothing. Of course, that made sense, seeing as I have super strength.

That's how I knew I could do it. I opened my eyes and tried lifting the metal block again, certain that I would be able to lift it exactly the way I had imagined it.

But the block wouldn't even budge under my strength, no matter how hard I tried to lift it. And I didn't feel any stronger than I normally did, either.

I stood up and, looking over my shoulder at Dad, said, “I focused, just like you said I should, but I can't even budge it.”

“Kevin, did you actually focus or did you instead spend time admiring yourself in your imagination?” said Dad.

I froze. “How did you know I was doing that? Can you read my mind or something?”

Dad shook his head. “No. I'm just your father and, as your father, I know you better than you know yourself.”

I scowled and gestured at the block. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Actually focus,” said Dad, tapping the side of his head. “By 'focus,' I mean simply create a mental image in your mind of you lifting the block above your head. Don't admire yourself or fall in love with your own image. Just a simple, neutral mental picture that shows you achieving your objective.”

That still sounded silly to me, but I didn't know how else I was supposed to access my powers, so I decided to listen to Dad and try again.

Turning back to face the metal block, I started focusing again on making a mental image in my head of me lifting the metal block. That was pretty easy, but what was hard was not admiring my own awesome self. The mental image of myself raising that half ton metal block above my head was just way too cool for me to look at neutrally.

But I remembered what Dad had said and so I tried as best as I could to not admire how awesome it looked. I bent down in front of the metal block and slipped my fingers under it again, getting a good grip on it. I didn't feel the super strength flowing through my body yet, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I felt it.

Taking a deep breath, I began trying to lift the metal block off the ground. This time, I actually felt it budge ever-so-slightly. Excited, I opened my eyes and tried lifting it all the way above my head, but as soon as I did that, the metal block suddenly became too heavy for me to move again.

“Damn it,” I said as I stood up. “I thought I got it this time.”

“You were too hasty,” said Dad. “You need to really focus on that mental image. It can't just be a brief moment. It needs to be in your mind long enough for it to become a part of you.”

I turned to look at Dad, feeling annoyance rising in me. I wished I could see Dad's face, but his helmet made that impossible. “Why didn't you tell me that before?”

“Because I thought you would understand that,” said Dad. “But I must have forgotten how hasty you are. We'll try again.”

“Try again?” I said. “Can you guarantee that I will move it this time?”

“I can't, but that's because it all depends on how much effort you put into it yourself,” said Dad.

“I feel like I have been doing that already,” I said. “How much harder am I supposed to try?”

“It's not about working harder, but about working smarter,” said Dad. “You see, Kevin, learning how to use your powers isn't easy. Lots of neoheroes struggle in the beginning to master their powers, even when they have a mentor to teach them. You are no different from them.”

“Oh, yeah?” I said, finding it harder to control my anger. “How do you know there isn't another way to learn how to use my powers?”

“Because I've trained other neoheroes before and this method has worked with them,” said Dad. “It does require some effort on the part of the student, but—”

“But it doesn't seem to work,” I said in frustration. “Can we try something else?”

“Two attempts isn't when I would call it quits and start looking for alternative options,” said Dad, shaking his head. “You need to try at least a few more times before we should try something else.”

“Define 'a few more times,'” I said.

“As many as it will take until you are able to control your powers,” said Dad.

I groaned. “Oh, come on!”

“Whining about your problems won't fix them,” said Dad.

“Whining?” I said. “I'm not whining. I'm just trying to make you understand that it isn't as easy as it looks.”

“Nothing worth having ever comes easy,” said Dad, shaking his head. He gestured at the metal block again. “Now get back to focusing on that mental image in your head. We have no time to lose, because Master Chaos could show up any day now.”

I scowled, but turned around anyway. Instead of doing what Dad told me, however, I decided I was just going to kick the stupid metal block. I was too angry to focus at the moment and I needed a way to blow off some steam. And if that pissed off Dad in the process, well, that was just a bonus.

So I kicked at the metal block as hard as I could. I expected to break my foot by kicking it, but to my shock, the metal block flew into the air. It soared through the sky before coming to a loud crash hundreds of feet away from where I stood with my foot still out.

I stared at the block, stunned for a moment, before looking over my shoulder at Dad. Dad, however, was not staring at the block. He was just shaking his head, his hand on his forehead, like he was starting to lose his patience.

“I didn't mean to do that,” I said, lowering my foot. “I—”

“It's fine,” said Dad, interrupting me before I could finish. “You got frustrated and it made you lash out. That happens pretty regularly to young neoheroes.”

I sighed in relief. “So are we done for the day?”

Dad shook his head and pointed at the metal block. “Nope. Instead, we're changing up the training. Because you obviously can't lift heavy things just yet, you should instead pull that block back to where it was. You didn't kick it very far away, so it shouldn't take you very long.”

I looked at the metal block again, which looked like it was partially embedded in the earth now. “Do I have to?”

“Yes,” said Dad in a firm voice. “Now go and drag or push it.”

I sighed, but started walking over to the metal block anyway. Today was going to be a long day.