Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen Read Free Page A

been practicing it. She closed her grey eyes and, still smiling, shook her head. “Thanks, but I don’t think so,” she said politely. Then she turned away.
    I walked back to Robert and the guys, like a robot in ‘50s B-movies. My legs were stiff, my feet were too big. Then I started crying. First, a trickle. Then a torrent. I needed a bigger body just to contain the heartbreak and rage. I began my transformation into the Grizzly.
    Even as I was changing, I remember being angry and then feeling guilty for being angry: angry at being so stupid and clearly missing some obvious signal; at setting myself up the way I always did for rejection and pain; at hoping that someone would see past my scrawniness, thick glasses, and crooked teeth and just take me for who I really was; at having so many feelings and not being able to just be normal for once; at scaring all these ordinary kids who just wanted to go to a junior high dance; at not being able to stop at my transitional form the way I’ve recently figured out; at the knowledge that I was the Grizzly, that the Grizzly was my true, deep-down self— a shaggy mountain beast that was realer than I could ever allow Patrick to be, and the Grizzly roared to life under that mirrorball while Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” faded out.
    Michelle didn’t even try to hit me with her power bands. Tuyen didn’t try to control my mind, Robert didn’t use his ultrasonics, Tony didn’t use his strength, Jimmy didn’t teleport me out of there. They didn’t need to. The gym was too small, the music too loud, the lights too bright. I ran for the exit on my own pure instinct. I smashed the doors open, veered left into the hall, crushed lockers with my shoulders like a massive pinball of muscle and claw. I needed more space, and I felt like howling all the way to the stars. I ripped the door at the end of the hallway off its hinges, but I couldn’t fit through the frame. I pushed and tore, but the walls were concrete and wouldn’t give.
    The next voice I heard was Stephen’s. I don’t know what he said. Sometimes I lose my human language skills. But his tone was cool and jokey and low-key. He could afford to be that way, even in this situation. His agility, strength, and super martial arts gave him even odds in a fight with the Grizzly. He leaned against a wrecked locker, arms folded loosely, making wisecracks about how his father was the head of the Separate School Board and would have to explain this to the parents. They already didn’t like the extra fees and insurance they had to pay because of us X-freaks. Stephen said, “But it’s not our fault we were freaks. We can’t do anything but be who we are, and the bushels around here aren’t big enough to hide our light.”
    I slowly turned back into Patrick. I had lost my glasses and my clothes. Stephen gave me his suit jacket and helped me out the hall door and up the stairs to my locker, where I had my gym clothes. He asked if I wanted to call my parents to come get me. I didn’t. But my bus pass was in my wallet. He actually went back to the gym to get it for me. He found my glasses, too. He said he’d straighten everything out with his father. I’d be all right. There’d be other dances.
    I said, “Thanks,” and went out the back door to go and wait for the bus to take me to my little, normal home. I never want to become the Grizzly again.
    * * *
    A couple of weeks later, I got a call from Stephen— or should I say, Man O’War. He, Rob, Tony, Tuyen, and Jimmy had decided to take on super-identities and see if the Justice Alliance, who were headquartered in downtown Calgary, would train them. But they arrived just as the Myth Masters had beaten the team and taken over the building. So now they were trapped— and Quanta was with them. The Grizzly went charging to the rescue, and it caused enough chaos and confusion to give the Alliance time to come back and send the bad guys running. Acidonna told us to give up