Silver Moon Stories

Chapter 3 Greenfoot

It was warm for May in Denver. The sun was high in the late afternoon sky and the insects buzzed near the equipment shed, in between the football stadium and the track field. There was a new bee colony in the wild fields just behind all of the clean trimmed lawns and tight packed clay of the human invasion into the wild areas of the world. Max was fairly sure that no one else could hear the noise of the wonderful, industrious little society. They had lulled Max into a meditate state of mind and on a day like this, that was exactly where he wanted to be. Too bad it wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing.

Max Blumenthal had always been called a dreamer. More often than not he had heard his teachers and parents say that his head was in the clouds. He liked the thought of being in the clouds since he was always rooted to the ground. At least ever since that day day fifteen years ago in second grade on the playground in the middle of recess. Ever since then, he had to have his feet on the ground. Preferably in the dirt, but on the ground was good enough most days. That was the reason grounds keeper had been his job all the way through college. Oh and of course his superpower.

Today was the day that it all came to a successful end. Graduation. Most of the graduation ceremonies were over, except for the one that very few students were enrolled in. Or even knew about. The undergraduate program in superhero studies wasn’t secret per se, but it also wasn’t advertised in the normal course catalog and if you knew it existed you had either been in the program or had a relative who was. The students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences in superhero studies had a private graduation ceremony early in this very evening and Max wanted the stadium to look perfect for his big day. Today he went from student of Supers to a Super himself. He was nearly vibrating with excitement and fear. Today he would finally know what class of superhero he would be placed in.

The sense that someone was coming towards the shed pulled him from his reverie. Max had always had a sense whenever someone was nearby. It was a part of his power. Unfortunately, it didn’t tell him specifically who that person was, but he could tell by the footfalls that it could only be one person. Max groaned inwardly at the approach of the individual. Please, Max thought, please let me be wrong just this once. anyone but him. Max moved to look around the edge of the shed and groaned outwardly. Sam Gustafson shook the ground as he strode towards the shed.

“I’ve been looking for you Max the Martian. What are you doing, Martian?” It wasn’t a very creative nickname. Max’s power had turned his light brown hair a deep shade of green and his skin took on a lime green hue on that day in second grade. Fortunately, his eyes were already a bright forest green, otherwise Max had no doubt those would have changed too. Sam, who had gone to the same elementary school, had coined Max the Martian and Greenie that day and called him that ever since. Max felt as if he’d been jailed for being different all his life and Sam were his jailer. It didn’t even matter that they were both Supers now.

“My job, Sam. I’m doing my job. What do you need?” As if Max didn’t know. It was always something that would humiliate him. Sam’s eyes narrowed in anger. Max had no idea what he’d done this time, but he could tell that it wasn’t good.

“Don’t cop an attitude with me, Greenie and don’t you ever call me that again. I’m Shattered to you and the rest of the world now. Sam was my before name. Say it, Greenie. Say my name.”

“Sorry, Shattered.” Max said through gritted teeth. “What do you need?”

“That’s better. I need you to go buy food and drinks for my after-graduation party. You need to bring them to the frat house in an hour.” Shattered told Max as if he was reminding him of something he’d already asked him about several times before in the week. In fact, Shattered hadn’t even talked to Max one in the last two weeks. Those had been great weeks.

“Shattered, I’m really busy getting things ready for our graduation in a couple of hours. I don’t have time to do things for you. Get someone else.” Max started to turn away from the large man. It always felt like Sam had towered over him ever since they were kids, but truth be told, Max was only a couple of inches shorter. The difference was in girth. Max was of a slender athletic build. Like a cross-county runner. Sam was built like a football linebacker. Both had been in those particular sports. Max had run barefoot, unusual but, shoes actually hurt his feet. So now, whenever he could, he went shoeless.

Sam had been a terror on and off the football field, ever before his powers had manifested. Just exactly why he decided to vent his anger out on Max, Max wasn’t sure if he would really understand. Maybe he was an easy target or maybe there just was something that Sam didn’t like about him. It really didn’t matter anymore. Hopefully, today would be the last day he ever had to deal with Shattered. So, Max had decided today that enough was enough.

Shattered slammed a fist into the shed near Max’s head. The steel shed wall cracked and then broke into a thousand shards of sharp shrapnel. A number of which lodged into Max, and he fell to the ground instantly being to bleed from dozens of tiny wounds. His green blood dripping onto the ground wherever it dropped, Max’s blood cause grass to sprout. The few metal shards that had flown back into Sam’s direction had ricocheted off of him like his skin was made of the same type of metal. He stood over Max glowering down at him.

“You see what I can do, freak? I could do that to you, if I wanted to. When I ask you to do something I expect to be obeyed!” Shattered shouted at him with his face turning into a cruel smile at the end.

Max sat on the ground, bleeding, and tears began to well in his eyes. He’d never asked for this, so what had he done to deserve it? This man had tortured him for a lot of his school years. Wasn’t Max a Super too? He was done being the victim.

“You know, Sam. I feel sorry for you. Look at all the power you have, and this is what you choose to do with it? Does torture me make you feel powerful?” Max slowly got back up to his feet. “You know there is no way I could compete with you one on one in a physical battle. Maybe you aren’t as strong as you want others to believe? I don’t get it.”

“You little shit.” Shattered said to Max with the grin growing more manic and the fires of hatred swirled in his eyes “I am going to enjoy beating the crap out of you this time.” As he started to swing his arm back for the next punch, Max could tell this one was aimed at his head.

Several things happened almost at the same time. Shattered swung his fist towards Max. Max, who was the quicker of the two, managed to dodge out of the direct path of the punch. Lastly, a figure started to appear around the other side of the shed. The person raised their right arm towards Shattered and all of a sudden everything froze. Actually, Max realized that it wasn’t that everything froze, everything had been slowed down to snail crawl except him and the new person. This was someone he knew. Someone he liked a lot. Languor stepped closer to the two young men.

“I was wondering when you were going to stand up to him. I shouldn’t be surprised that it was graduation day.” Emily had a rich, musical, alto voice that sent shivers down Max’s spine ever since the first day they had met 4 years ago. She tossed her golden-brown curls out of her eyes with her left hand so she could maintain her power over the area. “I should report this to the dean of students right now. Especially since he actually injured you this time.”

Max smiled at Emily and the tension he hadn’t known had built up, ebbed from his body. Emily Vaughn was one of Max’s closest friends and when he was willing to admit it to himself, one of his longest crushes but he would never make a move on her as he valued their friendship so highly that he did want the chance of losing the connection they had. Max didn’t have many friends and the ones he had were precious to him.

“I don’t know if I can ever thank you enough, Em.” Max said after a couple of deep breaths.

“I understand why you should, but do you think you might overlook look this? I have no wish to have him get expelled on graduation. It wouldn’t be good for him mental health and I know it would be bad for my physical health.” Max said sincerely but also with a bit of sarcasm.

Emily nodded. “Let me bring the Neanderthal back into the regular flow of time.”

“Hey, that not nice, Em.” Max said with a false frown. “Neanderthals were way smarter than Sam. Maybe just Caveman.”

“And now I have Captain Cavemen in my head thank you very much. Why did my dad make me watch all those old cartoons?” She said with a bit of a laugh.

“Because Captain Cavemen was an amazing cartoon. The great Mel Blanc voiced him after all.”

They both laughed and smiled. This was one of those many connections the two of them had. The love of old cartoons. Emily pointed her right hand towards the sky and clenched her fist as if holding an imaginary club.

“Captain Cavemannnnnnn!” She said as she lowered her arm and time came back to normal.

Shattered’s swing completed through the air right where Max’s head should be. He blinked, confused for just a moment and turned on Emily.

“Don’t you even think about it, Sam. You got lucky today. I won’t tell the dean about this little explosion you had today if you walk away now.” Emily said, cold iron filling her voice. Max was very happy he wasn’t on the receiving end to that voice.

“This isn’t over Martian.” Shattered whirled on Max. “Your little girl protector won’t always be around.”

“Walk away, Sam. Right now, or this little girl will show you just how much power she has.”
The cold iron had turned hot.

Sam slunk away from the two friends. Emily turned towards Max and looked at his wounds with a pained expression.

“We should find Salve. She’ll fix you up.” Emily started to walk closer to Max.

“I can wait a bit. I’ve already stopped bleeding. I need to finish getting the lawn ready.” Max said looking at the stadium. It was only half done. He didn’t want to leave it undone.
“It should only take a couple of minutes.”

Emily mimed hitting him over the head with a club,” Unga bunga, Captain Caveman say you a workaholic.”

They both laughed hard and Max smiled widely to the point it hurt his cheeks. They both new it was true. Emily sat down on a bench near the shed and pulled out her phone. She then turned it around to Max and showed him the timer she had just started.

“You get fifteen minutes. Any more than that and I will freeze you in place and find Salve on my own.” She looked serious. Max knew she meant business.

“Agreed.” He said and they both moved towards the stadium.

---

“Max Blumenthal! Bachelor of Arts in Superhero Studies. Superhero class, Omega!” Said the dean of students with all of excitement had just used for his classmate, Lauren Bailey who was going to be an Alpha.

Omega, well with a power like Max’s it was unlikely that he’d ever been anything higher than a Gamma. There were a few Supers classified as Delta or Epsilon, but most Supers were Alpha, Beta, Gamma, or Omega. Omega Class Supers were at the bottom of the barrel. The Omega class was where they placed weak, unusual, or useless Supers who manage to graduate the program or got brought in to avoid their powers from affecting the normal folks around them. They hardly ever got sent on anything higher than a White mission, in other words, clean up duty. At least he was now officially a Superhero regardless of where he had been placed. Max’s heart swelled at the thought and then sank when the dean got to the next student. There were only fifteen after all.

“Sam Gustafson! Bachelor of Arts in Superhero Studies. Superhero class, Alpha!” Sam deliberately and slowly walked up to the stage, every step felt like a mini earthquake. What a showoff, Max thought. He’s going to milk every minute of this. At least when he reached the stage, the dean gave Sam a quick but pointed look and the rumblings stop. At least some of his teachers seemed to know what a creep Sam was, and Max’s favorite teacher was having a hard time keeping a disgust look from her face. Salve, or Doctor Katherine O’Donnell was a woman of undetermined age and medium height, yet she had striking features. Her eyes were a bright purple and her face seemed flawless in symmetry except for the wide scar that ran from her chin to her left ear. Students swapped stories about how she got the scar and why it hadn’t healed but no one knew for sure.

Right now, she looked like someone who had just taken a bite out of a lime or a lemon. Normally, Salve was friendly if a bit stern and only soured on you if you were injured or responsible for an injury. When Salve had learned about Max’s power, she’d asked if he would mind growing a few specialized varieties of grasses known for their healing properties. That was the first time anyone had ever seen anything about his power as useful. She’d told him that just because his power seemed limited in scope didn’t mean that it was only good for one thing. After that, Salve had taken a special interest in him and helping him see the potential in his powers. He knew that the ability to make grass grow under your feet was a pretty minor power compared to others, but he no longer felt that it was stupid.

Sam was on his way back to his seat and the rumbling intensified as he passed Max. In his peripheral vision, Max could see Sam glare daggers at him, and he drew a quick finger across his neck which he tried top partiality disguise as scratching an itch. Max hoped with all his might that they were posted in opposite ends of Denver. Maybe he’d get lucky and the military would draft Sam into the Supers division of the armed forces. In the end, he knew he wasn’t going to be that lucky, especially since Sam’s father was now a Senator.

To take his mind off of Sam, he scanned the crowd for his family. He didn’t have far to look. They were in the first row of the crowd. His dad, Levi, was smiling broadly and waving vigorously. His mom, Hazel, was sitting quietly next to his dad but smiling just as widely. The two other figure cause Max to blink in surprise. He never thought they would have shown up. His old sister, Tracy, was decked out in a three-piece business suit in navy and looked a bit over dressed compared to the rest of the crowd. Although it was evening, she still wore dark black sunglasses. Max knew that behind those glasses, Tracy was handling all of the business matters of her company, Moonrise Labs remotely. His sister was a tech powered Super. Meaning that she could create almost any device that came into her mind. Most devices were strictly one offs, designed for other Supers to use but, occasionally she had patented other devices that had become available to the normal consumer. But still generally only at prices the rich could afford. Like those glasses that she wore at all times.

The final figure was the one who had really thrown him for a loop. It was his paternal grandfather, Ira Blumenthal. Or as most people knew him when he was in costume, the silver age Super, Lifeline. Lifeline was one of the most popular Supers of all time. On those stupid top 10 Super lists you saw online, Lifeline always appeared. Almost never number one. That was usually reserved for the Super that all of the Greek lettering for ranking powers came from, Alphalight. Ira Blumenthal sat on the bleachers near the grass his grandson had tended to just hours before and looked as if it had offended him.

Max wasn’t sure why his grandfather was upset but he hoped that it didn’t have anything to do with him. He got back on the graduation, and it was coming to an end. The last student was about to be announced.

“Emily Vaughn! Bachelor of Science in Superhero studies. Summa cum laude! Our valedictorian! Superhero class, Alpha!” The dean nearly shouted into the microphone. That was because almost all of the students, teachers, and crowds of families and friends clapped and hooted loudly. Max was no exception. He was on his feet clapped wildly and beaming. There were a few who were halfhearted in their congratulatory noises. Sam was actually not one of them. He was up and clapping like the rest. He seemed surprisingly happy for a man who only a few hours ago had been easily defeated by the valedictorian. Maybe it was school pride, maybe he was happy that another classmate was an Alpha. Only Sam, Laura, and now finally Emily had been awarded Alpha standing. Of course, there had one been one Omega, Max thought a bit sourly.

Max cleared the thought from his head. It wasn’t a time to worry about where each of them had been placed. Now it was a time to celebrate becoming a Super!