I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Cry, But I Lied
Chapter 3Will Stronghold realized something.
In over eight years he had never seen his dad without a long sleeved shirt buttoned up to his neck unless he was in his Commander costume, which also had a high neck.
Now he knew why.
Will continued to stare at the image of a little boy flash-burned into his father's supposedly invulnerable skin. Next to him, equally stunned, stood the one who had unknowingly done it.
Warren Peace was in absolute shock. The final revelation from his past caused him to drop to his knees. He looked up at Steven, his eyes filled with tears.
"I'm…I'm so sorry…"
With one swift motion the Commander reached down, lifted up the cringing young man, and once again held him to his chest.
"Of course I forgive you, son," whispered Steven, "Can you forgive me?"
Warren only nodded and returned Steven's hug as strongly as he could. Though not in Will's class Warren was still very powerful and he nearly knocked the breath from Steven for a moment.
"Steven?"
"Steven, please let him go."
Steven Stronghold knelt on the cold marble floor of the courtroom, holding the motionless little boy in his arms.
"Steven," Josie repeated, "please…"
"Son," said his father, the famous super hero Major Victory, trying to reach him, "let him go. For the love of God…please."
"I won't," sobbed Steven, "I won't let you go Warren. I lost your father…I lost your mother…I won't lose you."
Powerful hands grabbed Steven from behind. Half a dozen other heroes and villains with super strength grabbed his arms, trying to pull them apart.
It was useless.
Finally his father joined in, and together they slowly pried open Steven's arms just enough for the Major to grab Warren and pull him out.
The little boy, his clothes burned away, was quickly placed on one of the tables where Dr. Mandragore frantically examined him. Paramedics were arriving, but he was far better qualified to attend to the boy. He swiftly grabbed a stethoscope and tried to check for a heartbeat and breathing, but the scalding heat drove him back.
"Shaniqua," he yelled, "cool him down quickly!"
Without hesitation Black Ice, one of the villains, began drawing the heat from the air to power her ability to create snow and ice. In an instant she released a flurry of snow that covered Warren, resulting in a cloud of steam until his body began to finally cool down.
Dr. Mandragore found a weak but steady heartbeat, and ordered Warren be put on oxygen.
"We have to get him to a hospital…Lucretia…"
"At once," his wife answered. With a grand gesture the entire room went black for a moment, then everyone found themselves in the emergency room of the hospital down the street.
"This boy is going into shock," yelled Dr. Mandragore to a nurse, "I need a room NOW!"
The sudden appearance of so many people out of a blast of black light startled the staff, but at once they did as they were told when the situation was known. An examination room was swiftly prepared, and the attending physician deferred to Dr. Mandragore's expertise and oversaw the setting up of the required equipment to monitor the little boy's condition and stabilize him.
Steven was still on his knees, sobbing his heart out. It was then that Josie noticed his jacket, tie and shirt were burned away, and the state of his skin underneath.
"Please," she cried, "Steven needs help…he's been badly burned!"
The news shocked everyone there. The Commander could walk through volcanoes without a singed hair…how could he be burned now?
Black Ice again acted, covering Steven's upper body with a flurry of ice and snow that hissed and steamed as it cooled his burned chest, but was unable to do anything for the pain in his heart.
Now Steven again held the boy, now a young man, to his chest.
"I'll never let you go again," he whispered, "never."
Josie and Will both watched, tears of joy in their own eyes.
Steven finally broke the hug to step back and look at Warren.
Josie immediately stepped in and hugged Warren, the top of her head barely touching his chin. Her arms about him provided comfort that he had never felt outside the touch of his own mother…and even his father so long ago. He returned her gentle embrace, his tears wetting her hair as her own fell on his shirt.
"Warren," said Steven, "We have something to show you…downstairs."
Josie released Warren and stepped back, smiling her approval.
Will only grinned, wiping his eyes for possibly the thousandth time that day.
Steven walked over to a picture of a sailing ship and touched a hidden button. The picture opened up to reveal a strange metal plate with the image of a hand on it.
"Warren," smiled Steven, "come here."
Warren did as he was told. He had no idea what was going on, but he knew he had to find out.
"Could you place your hand there?"
Curious, Warren did.
The outline of the hand glowed. A strange humming sound filled the air, and across the room what looked like a china cabinet spit in two along with a section of wall, opening to reveal a shaft leading to beneath the house.
"It's a lot later than I had hoped," smiled Steven as he placed his hand on Warren's shoulder, "but I think it's time for you to finally enter our Secret Sanctum."
"How…" started Warren, his eyes wide with wonder.
"I programmed it with your genetic code years ago," smiled Steven, "Dr. Mandragore gave me a lock of your hair to do it with. He was as positive about it as I was that one day you'd join us."
I am stunned.
I am honored.
I am standing in the legendary Secret Sanctum.
I have never been so scared in my life.
I look around at all the strange items the Commander and Jetstream keep on display. Even without the display cards I recognize so many of them from history class; weapons and devices taken from the like of Ticranium, Exo, King Kamayamayhem, and others.
It's almost more than I can handle. I came here to share a secret with a friend, only to find he and his family had one for me. A big one.
What would it have been like to live here…growing up in this house of love…being loved?
Would I have called them mom and dad?
What about Layla, right next door? Would I have fallen in love with her so many years sooner? Would she have loved me?
My parents are still alive, but Dad was unable to help me, and Mom…would she have allowed it? Would she have given me up if she knew how much the Strongholds loved and cared about me? Would she have sacrificed her own feelings so that I would be safe and secure?
Yes, she would have. That's the kind of person she is. That's why she still refuses to divorce Dad after all these years.
Why do all these people care about me?
I'm not anyone special. A lot of people would consider me dangerous, a threat.
Yet the more I turn around, there is someone else wanting to be my friend. People at school actually talk to me. Girls come up…some a little afraid still…and actually flirt with me.
I don't know how to handle it.
Where were all of them when I needed them? Where were the friends when I needed to talk…the girls when I was lonely?
I know a lot of it was because of my Dad. He cast a long shadow over my young life.
But now I'm stepping out of it. I'm being helped by my friends…my real friends.
Another big part of it was how I looked and acted. I subconsciously wanted to fulfill their image of what I was; the bad seed son of a madman destined to be evil as well.
I was so hungry for attention even the negative kind was a blessing.
And it turns out all along there were people who did care, who wanted me.
A man who willingly became disfigured showing his love for me…his son who kept extending his hand to me in friendship even after I tried to hurt him and his friends…who are now my friends too.
"I just thought of something," said Will, "does this make us the Stronghold FOUR?"
Both of his parents seem surprised, but they quickly smile.
"If he'll have us," his dad says.
Yes. Oh God, yes.
I feel it happening again.
My heart…the strange but now familiar sensation from that first time as I stood on the edge of Sky High and stepped off, words of love on my lips, and gained flight.
I thought Will was the only one here that could do this for me.
Now I know there are two others who have also been empowering me all along.
"Sir," I say, smiling for the first time since I came here, "you have shown me so much. I came here to show Will something, but I would be honored if you and Mrs. Stronghold would also come outside."
The request is met with puzzled expressions, and for a fleeting instant I think they will decline, but then they all agree.
My smile grows broader, and my heart soars.
"You have a beautiful smile," Mrs. Stronghold says as we head outside. She caresses my face again, and I melt with the gentleness and love it brings. "I'd like to see it more often."
I have a feeling everyone will.
Outside in the chill night air, it is very late. No one is about. That's how I want it. This is something only my friends…my family…can see.
Before anyone can move, I grab Will and hug him tight. He doesn't know how to respond at first, but then he returns it with ferocity.
"The cafeteria," I whisper, "I'm so sorry…"
"Don't be," he answers, "if it hadn't been for you, I might never have powered up. I owe you…everything."
"I threatened to roast you alive…"
"But you didn't."
"You saved me in Save the Citizen…thank you."
"You would have done the same."
"You think?"
"No, I know."
We break the embrace, and I see he's still crying like a little girl.
"People might get the wrong idea about us," I joke.
"What," he grins back, "they've never seen brothers hug?"
His dad has called me "son". He refers to me as "brother". I still don't know how to respond.
"So what's the big surprise?" asks Will.
"This." I cannot contain it any longer. I release the love that has been growing inside me even stronger since Will and his family revealed my past…our past, to me.
They love me.
The man I once thought of as my enemy…his son who I once attacked…
They love me.
They have made me more powerful.
The white flames from my heart envelope me, lighting up the back yard as bright as day.
I rise into the air, hovering as I smile down on them.
Will has that same dumb look on his face when he's trying to figure something out. I smile even wider at his puzzlement. The Commander…Steven has a look of pride like I was his own son first powering up. Mrs. Stronghold…Josie is crying, but she is smiling.
"Oh Steven," I hear her say, "he looks like an angel."
Maybe I am. No longer a fallen one, but one ascendant, empowered by them…by their love.
"Thank you," I tell them, "you gave me the power to do this. Your love has done this for me. I can't ever repay you."
"Just having you here," she smiles, "is thanks enough."
I cannot resist performing the fireworks I did for Zach, Magenta and Ethan. I soar into the air, lighting up the sky with steamers and bursts of wondrous but harmless flame.
Now I know how to respond. In flaming letters I write "thank you" and "I love you".
I then swoop down and hover next to Will.
"Hey Will, how about a race?"
It takes a moment for him to catch on…then he grins like a pumpkin on Halloween and rises into the air to join me.
"Where to?" he asks.
"Second star on the right, then straight on 'til morning," I joke.
"You got it brother," he says.
Brother. I like that.
As one we both rise into the sky, then take off through the night, soaring higher than the clouds.
My brother and I.
As I fly, I feel warm tears flowing again.
Before I came here tonight, I promised myself I wouldn't cry.
But I lied.
The End