CHAPTER NINE
Robert came up out of the basement and locked the door behind him. He could hear Adam in the bathroom struggling with the costume – it had been made for a much smaller man to wear – and allowed himself a smile.

The entry bell binged and Robert turned to see who had come in, hoping it was Chase. It wasn’t. It was Dylan. “Hey, Robert,” he said in his laconic drawl.

“Dylan. Hi.” Robert threw a glance to the storeroom, praying that he could get rid of Dylan before Adam came out in the Superheroman outfit. “We’re not quite open yet, so…”

Dylan ignored him. “Did Lydia ask you to pull her books separately this week?”

Robert decided to tread carefully. “Well, Dylan, I don’t usually make it a policy to talk about my customers…”

Again Dylan cut him off. “Did she. Tell you?” He stepped to the counter and put his hands down on the glass, leaning into Robert a bit.

“Yes, Dylan, she did.”

“Don’t. You put her books with mine tomorrow.” Dylan stayed in Robert’s face.

“Look, Dylan, whatever’s going on, I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, I have to serve my customers, and Lydia asked…”

“She thinks I’m not right for her. I wonder who put that idea in her head? I should have never brought her in here. A bunch of nerdy-ass little boys who have nothing better to do than jack-off over RED SONJA and pine after my girlfriend.” Dylan took his hands off the counter and crossed his arms. “I know that Chase and Adam both have a thing for her. I’m betting one of them said a bunch of bullshit stuff about me. Now, I’m a good customer, Robert. I spend a lot of money in here every week. So, you best serve me, don’t you think. Put her books in my box and I won’t make sure you have to find new employees right before new comic book day, okay?” He waited a second, watching Robert. Robert just stared at him. Dylan nodded and headed for the door. “We’ll see you tomorrow,” he said over his shoulder as he left.

Robert let out a long, slow breath when the door shut. Adam came out of the storeroom, stuffed into the Superheroman costume. “See? I told her he was an asshole. He has no right to put his hands on a creature of such grace and beauty. She is like…”

“Adam,” Robert interrupted, “let’s skip the soliloquy, okay?” He came out from behind the counter and set about adjusting the short cape and the cowl of the costume. After he was satisfied, he said, “Well, I have to admit, the suit doesn’t look half-bad.” It was straining across Adam’s gut and thighs, but it was well-made and stylish.

“I should trounce him,” Adam said, still staring out the door after Dylan.

“Trounce?” Robert took a step back to look Adam in the eyes. “How about we work on your banter after we figure out your powers, huh? Trounce…” Robert brushed past Adam, nodding his head, and entered the storeroom. Adam followed.

Robert opened the back door to the alley and peeked outside to make sure the coast was clear. There was no one. It was late enough that all the people in the surrounding condos had gone to work already but the people without day jobs were still sleeping. He stepped into the alley and waved Adam out.

Adam stepped into the cold as Robert moved a little ways down the building. He grabbed a handle attached to a gearbox on the wall and started cranking it. An old fire escape ladder creaked down from above. “Up you go,” Robert said to Adam. Adam hesitated. “We can just go back inside and put bags and boards together for tomorrow,” Robert offered.

“No. No, I must do this. I must learn the limits of my power,” Adam said as he steeled himself. He gripped a rung of the ladder, took a deep breath, and started to climb.

Robert watched him go, disappointed. Disappointed because he had hoped that Adam would back out. He waited for Adam to reach the first fire escape landing then climbed up behind him.

Robert pulled himself over the building’s edge and onto the roof. Adam stood there, hands on his hips, surveying the skyline. “I should be winded,” he said, “but I am not. I feel alive, Robert. Full of vim and vigor.”

“Adam,” Robert said, leaning heavily against the short wall that ran along the roof’s edge, “stop talking like that. You sound all golden age.”

“Of course I do, Robert, for I am the herald of the age of the mystery man, the masked crusader. I am Kal-El holding a criminal’s car above my head. I am Bruce Wayne donning his cowl for the first time. I think it is fitting for me to cultivate a golden age image for myself.” Adam looked off into the horizon nobly.

“Whatever,” Robert said as his breathing eased. “So, what’s the plan?”

Adam looked at him and screwed his face up in thought. “Yes, well, I…I guess a full-scale test of the breadth and depth of my powers should be the first order of business. We know that I have some modicum on invulnerability from you ineffectual punch earlier. I am stronger than a normal man, as evidenced by my breaking the Serum rock. Since there was no corresponding physical change – no sheath of flame or anything – I think we can rule out anything along the lines of energy generation or control. No significant size change, aside from my slimming a bit, so we can cross off your Giant-Man-slash-Atlas-style mass and density alteration. I think we’re probably looking at your standard Superman. Hyperion, Ultraman suite of powers. Which brings, us, I guess, to flight.”

Adam looked sheepishly at Robert. “You don’t have to do anything, Adam,” he said, comfortingly.

Adam slouched. “I don’t want to be a coward any longer, Robert. I have spent so much time afraid of life, afraid of risk. Now I have been granted these fantastic powers…”

“Possibly fantastic powers,” Robert corrected.

“Yes, yes, possibly fantastic powers,” Adam continued, “and I’m even afraid to use them. Is this what all my years of study are come to?” Adam addressed the heavens. “Am I to be so timid as to be unable to utilize my gifts for the greater good?”

Robert cleared his throat and Adam looked down. “We could start with something smaller, you know,” he suggested.

“How do you mean?” Robert had Adam’s full attention.

“Well, if this is the Superman package, you should have X-Ray Vision, Super-Hearing, Super-Smell, you know, the whole sensory thing. So, let’s test that.”

A smile broke across Adam’s face. “Of course, of course! We should start at the bottom and work our way up. Hm, let’s see…” Adam scanned the roof quickly. “Ah-ha! Robert, come here,” he said, grabbing Robert by the shoulder.

“Ow, ow, ow! Super-strength, super-strength!” Robert winced as Adam relaxed his grip.

“Sorry about that, Robert,” Adam said. “Are you okay?”

Robert rubbed his shoulder. “I will be. Now where do you want me?”

Adam pointed a stubby finger across the roof at the low structure that housed the air conditioning unit. “Go crouch behind that.” Robert shrugged and trotted off toward the AC unit. He tucked himself away behind it, out of Adam’s field of vision. “Now hold out a number of fingers and I’ll try to see what number it is,” Adam hollered across the roof.

Robert turned his back to the AC unit and Adam, using his body to add extra shielding to the three fingers he held up.

Adam focused on the AC structure. Nothing happened. He focused harder. Still nothing. He screwed up his face tight and glared at the box. All he got was a dull headache. “Damn it!” He stomped his foot. The building shook.

“Whoa there, Adam, let’s not bring the place down, okay,” Robert shouted from his place behind the AC unit.

“I can’t get it to work,” Adam whined. “I am going to burst a blood vessel before I see through anything!”

“Calm down,” Robert said in his best soothing tone. “Try to relax into it. Try to forget what you’re trying to do, you know. Do it without thinking. I bet it’s more a matter of letting yourself than making yourself.”

Adam shook out his frustration, cricked his neck, and let his eyes come to rest on the metal frame. He just stood there, trying not to think about seeing through it. He wondered how long he was going to have to stand there before both he and Robert agreed that maybe he didn’t have X-Ray vision after all. He started to worry that maybe his powers were strictly low-grade, street-level hero powers. He didn’t want to spend his time fighting small timers like The Owl or Stilt-Man. He wanted to face off against top-tier baddies and universe-threatening entities. He wanted Darkseid, Galactus, the Beyonder. He…

…could see through the AC unit. And Robert. He could see all the parts and pieces of the machine as well as all of Robert’s bones and organs. Including the three finger bones Robert was holding up.

“Three,” Adam hollered. “You’re holding up three fingers.”

Robert peeked his head up over the edge of the metal box. “Was that a guess?”

“No! I saw your fingers! I saw them! Through the box!” Adam pumped his fist in the air. “X-Ray Vision!”

“That’s great,” Robert said as he stood up. “You will use it responsibly, I trust,” he added, shooting Adam a look. “No peeping in on…private things?”

“Of course, Robert,” Adam said indignantly. “I am a hero, after all!”

“Well, we should probably try your other senses now,” Robert said.

Adam didn’t hear him, though. All he could hear, coming from several blocks away, was Lydia’s voice saying, “Let me go! Ow! Put me down! Put me down!”

He turned toward her voice, put his head down, and ran off the edge of the building, out into thin air.