Ascension (The Ascension Series) (16 page)

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Sarah said.

“That’s more than amazing! It’s life changing,” Clark said.

“Maybe we should do that more often,” Sarah suggested, half-jokingly.

“Sarah─ That’s exactly what I was thinking!”

“What?”

“That we can
do
this. We can save lives! It’s the most incredible realization I’ve ever had.”

“You think so?” Sarah asked.

“I know so,” Clark said excitedly. “This is our destiny. This is our higher calling.”

“Are you suggesting we be like superheroes?” Sarah laughed.

“I know it sounds far-fetched, but that’s exactly what I think we should do. Look Sarah, these powers have changed our lives. Some of our friends don’t know how to cope with it. But this is what will bring us together.”

“What about the football team?” Sarah asked.

“Forget the football team!” Clark exclaimed. “This is the purpose of my life!”

“I don’t know, Clark.
That sounds like a lot of work. But I always trust you 100%.”

“Great!” Clark said. “
We’ll talk later. I’m so exhausted I can barely stay awake right now. I need to sleep.”

“Me too,” Sarah said. “Go to bed and think this over. I’ll see you t
omorrow. Goodnight.”

Clark shut his phone off, drudged himself upstairs, lurched into his room, removed his clothes, and
plopped onto his bed. He passed out from fatigue and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Clark awoke and was as anxious as ever.
He quickly got dressed long before he needed to and ran downstairs. He stopped his dad before he left for work.

“Dad!” he said as his father was getting ready to open the front door and make his exit.

“Yeah, Clark?”

“I just wanted to tell you something.”

“Make it quick. I don’t want to be late for work.”

“I’m quitting the football team.”

“What?” he dad said, surprised. “You haven’t even joined yet?”

“I just feel like I have a higher calling. I’m needed elsewhere.”

His father frowned. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah, dad. I think I’m having, like, an early life crisis.
I’m going to save lives! I’m going to help others! That’s my purpose.”

“Are you feeling okay, son?”

“I’ve never felt this great before in my life!”

“Well it’s Friday,” his dad laughed, “So I’m feeling pretty good too. No work for the next two days.”

“So are you okay with that?” Clark asked.

“With what?”

“Me leaving the football team?”

“Clark, it’s your decision. Sure, I wanted a football player but you have to do what makes you happy. So if you want to leave the football team to join some group of charity workers
because that’s what makes you feel good, then go for it. And besides─ we got another kid on the way so it’ll be cool if you screw up.” His dad laughed, gave Clark a hug, and walked out the door.

Clark’s mom entered the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal.

“You sure look peachy this morning,” his mother said with a mouthful of milk and cereal.

“I feel like my life has just changed forever, mom,” Clark grinned.

“Overnight?” she asked.

“Yeah, it all happened so fast,” Clark said as he poured himself a bowl of cereal.

His mother asked what he meant and Clark vaguely told her the same thing that he told his father. He would quit the football team in order to make a difference in Cincinnati. Like his father, his mother assumed he meant joining a group of students who did extracurricular charity work. Realizing it meant he would be out after school a lot, Clark told her that’s exactly what he was talking about.

“I think I can feel my baby kicking,”

“How much longer now?” Clark asked.

“Early March,” his mother said. “Although you were an early baby.”

“You still don’t want to know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Clark asked.

“No,” his mother said, “it’s going to be a surprise. That’s how the British Royals do it.”

There was a knock at the door. Cl
ark ran to open the door and spotted Sarah. He smiled and hugged her tightly.

“Sarah, you’re the love of my life!”

“You’re certainly feeling happy today,” Sarah said as she walked into the kitchen with him.

“That’s what I’ve been sayin
g,” Clark’s mother said.

“Hi
, Mrs. O’Sullivan,” Sarah smiled. “Nice to see you.”

“Nice to see you too, Sarah.”

Clark grabbed Sarah by the hand and whisked her upstairs to his room. He closed his door and they sat on his bed. Sarah kissed him and attempted to unbutton his shirt when Clark stopped her.

“You want to play the game again?” Sarah asked.

“No,” Clark said. “We can do that later. I want to tell you about my plan.”

“
No sex?” she asked blankly.

“We can do that anytime, Sarah! This is about the life changing event that occurred yesterday on the train tracks.”

“That news story was pretty amazing,” Sarah agreed.

“Now imagine doing that every day. Saving lives every night.”

“You think we could do that?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, if there’s anyone on earth who can do it, it’s us!”

Clark hopped up from his bed and began pacing across his room.

“So how do we go about doing that?” Sarah asked.

“We get costum
es. We become real superheroes.”

“It sounds a
bit cheesy. More than that, it sounds a little dangerous,” Sarah said, biting her lip.

“How did you get here this morning?” Clark asked her.

“I flew.”

“That’s dangerous! But you still did it.”

“Alright,” Sarah said, “I’m in. I guess it could be fun. I’ll be the real life Wonder Woman.”

Together they said bye to Clark’s mom, left the house, headed for the woods, and flew off to school.
The exhilarating feeling of flying never ceased no matter how many times they did it. Soaring through the air made Clark feel as if he were invincible and transcended mortality. Minutes later the feeling was over when they arrived in another small forest and, from there, walked to school hand in hand.

They entered the school and were bei
ng congratulated by numerous students: Sarah for being made head cheerleader and Clark for his incredible performance during football tryouts. They were becoming a high school power couple. Cheers and high-fives at every step. Once they made it to the hallway lined with lockers, they were joined by John and Charles.

“I told John all about the train we stopped,” Charles told Clark.

“John,” Clark addressed him. “You wouldn’t believe it, man. It was the most amazing thing we’ve ever done. We stopped a train from derailing. It was about to tip over and we stopped it.”

“Yeah,” John smiled. “Charles told me all about it.
After accomplishing something like that, what do you do next?”

“We become superheroes,” Clark said.

“What?” John laughed.

“I’m serious. We can do it, guys. If we can put a train back on its tracks, imagine what el
se we can do? We can create force fields, we can stop bullets, we can lift thousands of pounds without lifting a finger.”

“So you really want us to become superheroes?” Charles asked.

“Yes!” Clark responded.

“It sounds crazy but I’m willing to try it,”
Sarah told them. I’m in.

“It’s
a damn cool idea,” Charles agreed. “I’m gonna purchase a batmobile as soon as we get outta class. I’ll be rolling through the streets, stopping crime, and getting’ all the girls.”

“I don’t know,” John said. “It just sounds silly. This isn’t a comic book. Lots of people have tried to do the superhero stuff in real life and they always look ridiculous.”

“That’s because they can’t stop trains and guns and bullets with their minds,” Clark said as he punched his locker so hard it dented. “They can’t fly!”

“I suppose being immortal helps,” John laughed.

“We’re not immortal,” Sarah said. “I tried flipping as high in the air as I could and when I fell down, I definitely hurt myself.”

“So we’ve got to be careful,” Clark said.

“Like I said,” Charles told them. “If we’re gonna do this we gotta do it right. Pimped out car, fly costumes, and we need a bat cave too.”

“A bat cave?” John laughed.

“Well, you know,” Charles corrected himself, “A base of operation. I got just the place.”

“Where?” Clark asked.

“The warehouse where we’re keeping the crystal.”

“Great idea,” Clark said.

“I’ll spruce it up and make it look badass,” Charles said. “You can help me John.”

“Sure
,” John agreed.

“I’ll put
some plush furniture in it, a big screen t.v., and a long boardroom table that we can sit at,” Charles grinned. “Oh and lots of mirrors so we can look at ourselves.”

“What about the costumes?” Sarah asked.

“I’ll pick out some really great ones,” Clark said.

“Here,” Charles said as he pulled out his wallet and handed Clark a credit card. “Just give it back
when you’re done. Order a bunch of different crap. Everything that looks cool. But none of that cheap stuff. Maybe you can get me a Rorschach mask─ No, what am I talking about? My face is too pretty to be covered up.”

“We should definitely wear masks though,” Clark said.

“Then get domino masks,” John said. “The kind that Robin wears.”

“Yeah,” Charles agreed. “And order with one day shipping.”

“Alright, guys. Sounds good,” Clark said.

Sarah
hugged Clark and parted ways for class. Charles walked off and slapped several girls on the rears along the hallway. One of them scoffed at him while another slapped him in the face.

“
Charles never stops being Charles,” John told Clark as they walked into first period history class.

Th
ey sat in their usual spots near the classroom door.

“I didn’t think you were serious at firs
t,” John said. “But I think a superhero thing could be kinda cool.”

“It’s definitely going to work,” Clark assured him.

“Spreading fear into the hearts of wicked criminals,” John joked.

“So how did your visit with Andrew go?”
Clark asked.

“It went okay,” John said. “He’s definitely not coming back though. I told him we’d miss him.”

“Bummer,” Clark said before coming up with an idea. “You think we could get him and Dan to join us?”

“Andrew?” John asked
. “Nah. I’m telling you, man. It’s not going to happen. I’m not sure about Dan though. I suppose you could call and tell him.”

“Yeah,” Clark said. “I think I might do that.”

“Andrew did give me a small parting gift. Something he wanted to keep between me and him.”

“Cool. I’m glad you
got to say goodbye to him. You think we’ll ever see him or Big Dan again?”

“I really don’t think so
,” John answered. “This was really the end of the line.”

John pushed his long hair away from his face.

“Dude,” Clark laughed. “You ever thought about getting a haircut?”

“Nope.”

“You’re always sweeping it aside like it’s cumbersome.”

“Nah,” John told him. “No one c
an get me to cut this hair. It’s a big part of me. Give me hair or give me death.”

The teach
er walked into the classroom as the bell rang. Mrs. Tessler passed out notes and spoke as she stood in front of her class.

“Today we’ll be discussing the enneagram.
Mathematically the enneagram is a nine-sided polygon. You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about math in a history class. You see, the enneagram also represents a model of human personality. It states that all human beings fit into one of nine interconnected personality types. Types such as the leader, the partner, the thinker, the idealist, and so on and so forth. Some argue the genesis of the enneagram began in the fourth century by a mystic named Evagrius Ponticus. However the enneagram typology gained its current status in the early seventies thanks to Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo.”

“This is kind of boring,” John whispered.

“Can’t disagree,” Clark yawned.

Clark turned the page in his notebook and after taking a few notes, he used a blue ink pen to draw a figure with a cape,
goggles, boots, and gloves. Above the figure he wrote “Night Wolf.”

“That’s it,” Clark whisp
ered to himself. “It’s perfect. Night Wolf.”