Superhero Story Chapter 1: William

Twelve year old William Moreland had been feeling unwell all day: his carer at the orphanage had told him that it was just puberty or growing pains; but he didn’t think puberty could be this painful. Unfortunately, apparent growing pains were not William’s only problems; at lunchtime he had thrown up over the school bully, James Nixon, who had vowed his revenge on William after school.



As the last bell went, William packed his bag as slowly as possible, trying to prolong the inevitable trip to hospital after James had finished with him and his carers had found out. William gingerly made his way towards the now empty playground - and James. Reaching the playground, he saw that James had three of his followers waiting with him. William removed his backpack and placed it by the steps back up to the school, out of harms way. As they stepped towards each other, William tried to block James’ first punch.



Less than five minutes later, William was on the floor with a black eye, a broken nose, what felt like a fractured left wrist and a sprained ankle. The pain he’d been feeling all day had reached its peak, leaving him crumpled on the concrete. Suddenly, the pain disappeared. It hadn’t lessened, he wasn’t feeling any other pain, it’d just vanished; almost as if he’d never been ill in the first place. Opening his eyes, William got to his feet as James directed a punch to his stomach.



Both William and James heard the crunch of breaking bones. James’ bones. Unbeknown to even himself, William’s body had been changing at a molecular level: his biological father, unknown by either William or the orphanage staff, had been Titan, the superhero with almost unlimited super strength. Feeling cocky, William punched James in his stomach, making him double up. Lifting him by his stomach, William held James above his head before throwing him across the playground.



Running back to the orphanage, William darted up to his room on the third floor before any of the staff could ask him how his day had been. He suddenly remembered that he’d left his school bag back in the playground. Momentarily forgetting his new strength, William banged his fist on the desk in frustration. The desk splintered before his eyes in a deafening wall of noise.



Thinking on his feet, William quickly lay down on top of the ruined desk, as he’d just feinted. The head carer, a very portly looking lady called Mrs Addamms, burst through the bedroom door and helped him down to the first aid room

“William are you OK?” she sounded worried “is it the same pain as this morning?” William pretended to grunt a reply at he “Oh William! I’m so sorry for making you go to school today” He tried as best he could to hide his smile.