Hey. I am Zack and I am the fastest thing ever blah blah blah. Anyway, the story starts when I was 11 years old and the day I got beat up by bullies. Now, two years later the bullies are in a different school and I am in my dad’s chemistry lab holding one of the vials filled with some liquid. Suddenly, lightning breaks through the roof and the last thing I remember was being struck by a strong jolt. When I open my eyes I am in an ambulance. I fall unconscious again and then I wake up in a hospital bed. 

“What happened?” I ask drowsily.

 “Zack,” the doctor looked right at me, “you were struck by lightning and thrown into some dangerous chemicals. You are lucky to be alive. Your heartbeat kept speeding up then it almost came to a complete stop a few times!” 

I saw my mother in the corner, her eyes red from crying. My dad was just standing near the window casually eating a candy bar. He didn’t look very concerned. The doctor said he would do a couple more tests now that I was awake. He wanted to keep me overnight. “Is that really necessary, doctor? Zack, how do you feel? You feel good? Strong?”

“I feel fine, but…”

“I really think he should stay overnight for testing.” the doctor interrupted.

“Jason, if the doctor thinks he should stay overnight…” my mom looked at my dad. Well, at least my mom seemed to care about me. 

“Mr. Hermes, obviously I can’t force you to keep Zack here overnight for observation, but I would hope to hear from you if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”   

My dad had a conference with my mom in the corner of the hospital room, which I could not hear-- he comforted her, he signed some paperwork and we headed home. Once home I headed through the hall to the living room and I plopped myself down on the L-shaped leather couch. I must have slept all night on that couch because the next thing I knew was the smell of cinnamon buns filling the air. It must be a welcome home breakfast. My mom, still looking upset and worried, made sure I had a proper breakfast. I thought about telling my mom that I was feeling fine, but I also enjoyed being waited on hand and foot! I was surprised by how hungry I was! I ate five eggs, three pancakes, three sausage patties, and two cinnamon buns. I also finished some leftover spaghetti from two nights ago. I could have had more, but my mom was looking at me in disbelief. I put my fork down. I was about to get ready for school when my dad suggested I take off a day of school to rest. I didn’t give him an argument. 

The next day I was late for the bus (as usual) and then as I was running after the bus I seemed to run past it and into some garbage cans a block ahead! I looked at my arms and feet. My pinkie finger looked and felt broken! What has happened to me? The bus caught up to me and the doors opened. I stood up and I boarded the bus. 

Quincy, the supposed leader of the bullies who liked to beat on me quipped, “I see that your parents kicked you out of the house and you found a new place to live”. Other kids were just laughing. Maybe because I was wearing a banana peel on my head from the garbage can debacle.

As we neared the school, I realized something was different about me...and I think my pinkie finger was now somehow healed. It didn’t hurt. But that’s also impossible, right? So, what now?  I’ve got super healing powers? I also felt very hungry, again. 

After school, I decided to test myself. Am I faster than yesterday? I noticed a cop with a radar gun so I thought, here’s my chance. I looked around only to see Quincy and his goons. “Look, it’s the garbage man,” Quincy shouted. “Hey fellas, what do you say, let’s take out the trash.”

 “I don’t want any trouble, Quincy. I’m just walking home.”

“I’m a nice guy. I’ll give you a ten-second head start” Quincy said, laughing.

“Ten seconds? What?” I looked at him. He looked very serious. 

“Start running,” Quincy whispers in my ear.

I turn to run and I took a few steps towards the cop car across the street. The next thing I knew, I was running past the cop and then past the school finally stopping twenty blocks later. My feet were wet. I was standing in two feet of water. I wondered, how did I get to Lakeside Pond in less than three seconds? I’m fast? Like...really fast? But how? Why? I suddenly felt shaky and I fell backward landing on my butt...still in the pond. Could this day get any worse? Sopping wet, I got up and slowly walked back home. 

 The next day was Saturday. I needed to be on my own and try to figure this out. I couldn’t tell anyone because who would believe me? My mom already thought I was a nutty kid even before being struck by lightning. I decided to go to the shed in the backyard and try out the treadmill that lies buried under a mountain of old toys and tarps. I saw mice droppings on the belt and I picked up a mask I used to wear to play a superhero with my friend, Cole. I tried it on and it still fit! Has my face not grown in eight years! I heard a scream coming from my house. I ran in and saw out the front window what appeared to be a robot kidnapping my parents. Now there must be something wrong with my eyes! I rubbed my eyes I looked again and saw there was indeed a robot kidnapping my parents! It had grabbed them and used some sort of rocket boosters to fly off with my parents. 

I took off after my parents trying to follow them as I kept looking up in the sky. I found myself in the middle of a forest. For the most part, I was able to keep up with the flying robot, which had landed somewhere in the forest. This is insane! I noticed footprints and the last footprint just stopped at a large tree. I saw a hint of metal on the tree and thought it must have something to do with the footprints disappearing. I hit the metal button and a hatch opened up from the ground. I went down the hatch through a metal tube. As I walked, I found a tunnel going left and a tunnel going right. There were guards everywhere. The guards standing at the tube on the right began marching down the tunnel. Once they were out of sight, I went to the left past the guards who never even saw me. I went through a door and saw that it wasn’t a robot. It was more like a cyborg...half-human, half-robot.

I find myself in a huge room, the size of a high school gym, maybe bigger. Farthest from me, I see what looks like a king’s throne, and on the right side edge of the room, I see a pool of steaming liquid some twenty feet across. My parents, each in their own cage hanging above the liquid, appear to be unconscious. The cyborg looked about seven feet tall with metal everywhere but some of his face, most of his neck, and the upper part of his thighs looked human. 

“What are you doing with my parents?” I shouted.

The cyborg turned to look at me.  “Hello, Zack. You don’t need to wear that mask in here. I am well aware of your...talents.”

The mask? I had forgotten I still had a mask on my face. I tore it off and put it in my back pocket. Repeating my question, I said more sternly, “What are you doing with my parents? What’s wrong with them? Why are they unconscious? Who...what are you?”

“They are being kept unconscious until I need them. Your father is very powerful and I don’t want to engage with him at this moment. You see, Zack, they are not just civilians but instead brilliant scientists who made a time portal. I found this time portal long ago and I went through it,” he said in a deep, scary voice. 

“Wait, what? What?” I repeated.

“Ahhh, you are just now discovering who you are, aren’t you? I couldn’t tell at first but now I realize you have just learned about your ability? I came from the future and I have been exploring this inferior world for several weeks. It’s barbaric! I could never survive in this time. The mere fact that I am a cyborg should tell you that! But as I went back to the lab to the time portal I discovered that the project had been terminated. My only hope was to capture your parents so that they could make me another time portal. I don’t expect any fight from you, either...that’s acid your parents are hovering above.”

Without a thought, I ran at him as fast as I could and we both fell near the acid pool. He caught my hand and threw me across the room. I landed on the wall and I was able to jump off and I started running at him again. I speed punched his human parts but he looked unaffected and rather calm. His hand turned into a blaster and he shot what appeared to be a laser beam at me. Even with my newfound super speed, it came at me fast. I somehow dodged it and ran for the door, but he flew at me while I turned the corner and he nearly succeeded in hitting me with his laser.  At least I think that is what happened. It was all so fast! I ran for the stairs. He blasted again and it must have been a direct hit because it seemed to “push” me ahead as I ran out of the base. It hurt a lot!

After what seemed like a full minute of lying on the ground, trying desperately to get a grasp on the situation, I thought I must be dreaming? None of this could be real! “Zack?” I turned around to find my best friend, Cole standing outside of the tunnel. Cole, only a sophomore, is built like a tank.

“Cole? What are you doing here?”

“I’m hiking. I mean, I was...hiking. I heard a lot of noise, Zack. What happened, here?” He helped me up. “Zack! Your shirt! You’re on fire! You are smoking!” He began patting the singed shirt. 

“I’m fine. I’m good...Cole” I grabbed his hands to calm him down. Half collapsing, I tell him, “Get me home.” Once we got back to my house he sat me down on the couch in the living room. I explained to him how the lightning hit me and how I had been trying to discover or rather uncover the changes that were happening to me. I told him that my parents were caged and how the Cyborg defeated me. 

“Dude, that must hurt.”

“Ya, no kidding,” I said, rubbing my back.

“So, is there any way I can help?”

“What!? No Cole, no! It is too dangerous, no. No way”

“Who are you telling, ‘no’? Who is it that carried you home just now? Who is it that just putout a fire on your back? Who is it that lifted the giant log off of your leg when we were kids? If it weren’t for me you would have died with your skinny little body lying under that tree like a weak, pathetic worm. I am going.” 

I take him to the shed and he is unimpressed. “Still want to go?” I ask him.

“This is not the base. Zack, tell me this is not your base of operations.”

 “Base of operations? What? I have no base of operations. I just discovered my freaky fast legs twenty-four hours ago when I met banana peels and other nasty garbage items at fifteen hundred miles per hour!”

“Wait, is that how fast you run!”

“I have no idea, I just picked a number.” I explain to Cole that in order to make this old shed the base of operations, we need to clear a spot to draw up plans. “Hand me that hammer, Cole.”

“It’s stuck. What the heck?” He takes a closer look. “I suppose this is Thor’s hammer!” Hold on, I think it is on a latch of some sort.” He pulls on the hammer and the floor drops slowly, almost like an elevator. “Zack? What’s going on? The floor is sinking. Sinking, Zack.” The elevator picks up speed, shooting down quite fast. “This is the base.” 

“This is not me,” I tell him. A lighted hallway leads into a room that is mostly white with a six-foot-long computer desk and a control chair. Also, oddly enough, a go-cart race track and an arcade room with sleek leather couches and…a popcorn machine? “I guess my parents built all of this. Don’t look at me, before today, all I thought I had was the treadmill in the shed.” 

“Zack, I think this is a supercomputer. Right? I mean, what else could it be? Your parents own Laundrymat World in town! The home of the ‘fastest drying dryers in all of Cherryfield!’” 

“Yeah, I’m beginning to think that is just a front. The cyborg said something about them being brilliants scientists. Have you met my parents? My mom talks like a cheerleader! We need more help, call Silvia. She is the smartest girl I know and she can help make a plan and she can help us in battle on the supercomputer.”

“Ya, Silvia is pretty cute, I-I mean smart.” Cole collects himself and calmly repeats, “Smart.” He blushes.

I punch him. “Cole, this is no time for crushes. My parents are dangling over boiling acid. Focus.”

“You didn’t say it was boiling.”

“Bubbling. Could be boiling. I didn’t have time to dip a TEA bag in it! Listen, I’ll speed around and figure out what every piece of equipment does and what its function is….wait here!”

“Oh, okay, I was gonna watch another episode of “Barbie’s Playhouse” but if you only need .4 seconds…”

“Cole. Give me a break, okay? This is all new and a little bit...freaky.  Alright, the control chair can hover and that supercomputer knows everything about everyone on planet earth, and also, it has Minesweeper game downloaded.” Cole was playing around with the desk and the hoverchair. “Good job. You keep spinning. So helpful. I’ll go get Silvia.” I brought Silvia back to the base. When she saw the base she was in awe. When she saw Cole, she was in another world. When Cole looked at Silvia, they both turned away and blushed. This is what I’m working with, I thought to myself.

“You didn’t tell me Cole was here,” she scolded me in a quiet tone.

“Sorry, didn’t know you liked him.”

“I don’t...I don’t like him,” she snapped. “Hi, Cole,” she smiled and even gave a little wave. She obviously liked him. 

“Okay, I don’t think we need to smile and...wave,” I said, trying to remember that my parents were likely dying somewhere.

“First thing’s first,” Silvia said getting into her ‘game mode’. “We need to bring the treadmill down here. We also need to get used to how these things work. Can you two handle the treadmill?”

“I’m a superhero. Of course I can handle a treadmill! Cole,” I called from upstairs point three seconds later. “Hurry up! How long does it take to get up a tny set of stairs?”

“So, now you are a superhero?” Cole yelled from way down in the base of operations room. “You told me yesterday you were slipping on banana peels and falling into garbage cans at the bus stop. I only run at ten miles per hour so you are going to have to wait! You don’t even have a superhero name, yet.”

 “Uhg. You know that I will be a superhero. I mean, won’t I? In the meantime, we need to help me get faster to defeat the cyborg. C’mon, Cole! I feel like you are in slow motion.”

            “I could stop for a sandwich if you keep yelling at me to move faster.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just that...now that I am faster than…”

“Stop. just, stop. You have to wait. I am trying.” Once we got the treadmill down to the basement of the underground shed, we were able to hook it up to the supercomputer and figure out how to test my speed. Well, actually Silvia did most of the figuring out part. I was discovering things about my new running ability. First, as I run I seem to generate more power behind my body which translates to what could be a deadly punch. But then again, could my wrist even survive a hard-delivered punch? Would my hand bones crumble? I also found out that I could run well over 500 miles per hour. Egads, that was dumbfounding. “Your shoes...let’s look at the soles,” Cole said.

“Not too bad,” I said. “I mean, worn but not completely destroyed.”

“Still, I think you need another pair of shoes just in case,” Sylvia added. “And I really don’t think that you don’t have to get faster. I mean, I can’t even see you when you are at top speed, can you, Cole?”

“No. Not even when I squint.”

“So, then...we are ready? Ready to go? Ready to do this?”

“Hold on a second, Mr. Gonzalez. We still need a plan,” Sylvia waved her hands at me.

“Mr. Gonzalez?” I said.

“Speedy Gonzalez. The super fast mouse. Am I alone in this?” she looked to Cole for confirmation.

“Yes,” Cole said. “A fast mouse? What? Aren’t they all pretty fast? I mean, my cat has caught some but I’m not fast enough to…”

“Oh my god, forget it,” Sylvia continued. “This is what we are going to do…” 

____________________________________ 

The very next morning Cole and I arrived at the tree where the secret passage led to the underground evil lair of the cyborg. Or at least I assumed it was evil. After all, there was a kidnapping. Silvia would stay back at the lab monitoring the supercomputer. She was able to send a drone to watch us. “Is that your stomach making that noise?” Cole asked me.

“Yes,” I answered. Cole just stared at me. “What?”

“You have to eat!”

“I did.” Cole continued staring at me.“What!?” I said a second time.

“You are burning calories literally every second. That means you have to eat. When you blink your eyes, there are five calories burned right there.”

“What?” I responded. “Then then that means you are burning five calories when you blink, too.”

“No, I’m not! You are now super fast and you have to eat more.” 

“Stop it. You are ridiculous. I’m not blinking...faster than you.”

 Sylvia’s voice could be heard through the drone’s intercom. “Come in, come in. Can you hear me? Testing.” 

‘I’m just saying…” Cole would not let it go.

“I can’t believe this,” I said. “Can we move past the fact that I need to blink so my eyes don’t dry out! My parents are in trouble.”

“Forget it. Whatever!” Cole just looked away.

 “And besides, I had three bowls of cereal, two giant pizza slices, a leftover bowl of mashed potatoes, and some rice cakes. Also, a juice box!” 

“A juice box?” Cole looked at me. “The kind for four-year-olds? Do they still make those?” 

“Can we?” I said, gesturing towards the tree.

“Hello? Wave is you can hear me,” I could hear Sylvia’s voice in the background.

“Rice cakes have no energy. Maybe like three blinks of an eye and that energy is…gone. Woosh!” he waved his hand in the air.

“I saw a hand wave,” Sylvia said, interrupting.  

“Well, now we burned four hundred calories just talking to you about it! Whoosh!” I waved my hand, too.

“I saw another hand wave. Good! It’s working!” Sylvia was chiming in.

“Uhg!” Cole said.

“Uhg...back to you!”

“Hello, can you two idiots hear me?” Sylvia sad louder, “because I can hear you and so can all the woodland animals and the evil bad guys, too! Let’s focus! Cole, just like we planned. Once Zack knocks out all the guards you make sure they don’t get back up. Zack, you need to spot your parents as soon as you enter the lair. Don’t try to fight the cyborg. Just focus on getting your parents free.”   

  “Got it,” I said giving Cole a fist bump. I shot down the stairs and took out every guard on the way down. At the bottom, I found huge doors. The drone had finally caught up to me.  “Time to free my parents.” I burst in and immediately saw the cyborg. He seemed to be monitoring a computer screen. I could see my parents working on what must be the time portal. 

“Nice,” Sylvia’s voice came through the drone’s speaker. “No alarms!”

 WHOOO WHOOO WHOOO WHOOO! “You had to say alarms!” Cole said. 

             The cyborg turned to see us. “So we meet again, Speedster. Computer, turn off alarms. Who is your friend? He looks…slow. Have you come back for a rematch?”

“I have only come for my parents, I don’t want any trouble.”

“Well, then you’ve come to the wrong place because that’s all you will find here.” Without hesitation, he launches like a rocket towards me. 

“Cole, find my parents!” I narrowly avoid the cyborg’s attack by jumping to the left.

“Zack, duck!” Sylvia’s voice came through the drone’s speaker. I was trapped in the corner. 

“No way out, Zack” the cyborg said calmly, “You are mine!”

“Sylvia? I need you! What do I do?”

“Uhm...Zack! Run up the walls behind you!”

“What?” I asked.

“Do it! I think it is possible. Just don’t think about it. They should feel like the normal even flat floors.”

“Here goes nothing” I shoot up the wall behind me. “I’m doing it!” The cyborg shoots at me with lasers coming out of his hand. I run at him at full speed and knock him back with the super punch I practiced back at the secret shed base thing. He launches what seemed to be a mini rocket at me, so I return to the walls. He shoots more mini rockets and blows a hole in the roof. I run behind him and turn around and punch him up towards the hole and as I do so he grabs on to me and takes me to the surface. “How do I defeat this guy,” I ask Silvia.      

“I don’t know, maybe if you run circles around him as fast as you can create a vacuum that should suck out all the air...and he will become unconscious,” she replies. I do exactly what she said and wouldn’t you know, it worked. “Yes! Now head back down and find Cole and find your parents.” 

“Cole? Cole!” Cole comes from around the corner. “Where are my parents?”

“Yeah, I can’t find them.”

“You had one job,” I look at him shaking my head. “Are you eating?”

“There is a vending machine in the hallway. I burn calories, too.”

“Blinking your eyes, I suppose.”

“Your parents are close,” Sylvia said. “They would need to be close to work on the time portal. Look around, find a door.” In less than two seconds I open every door and find my parents.

“Cole, over here.”

“They seem to be in a sort of trance-like state,” Cole stares at them.

“It must be those ankle cuffs” Sylvia added. “Find a way to take them off.”

“It’s just a twister seal. Easy!” Cole unlatched the ankle bracelet.

“Wait, what?” I said. “Ridiculous. It is just a twister seal. How weak are my parents?” All of a sudden my dad ‘comes to’. 

“Zack, you’re here! Your mother! Where is she?”

“I’m undoing her twister seal right now,” Cole said.

“Jessica!” My dad leans down to my mom.

“I’m okay. Help me to my feet.”

“Zack, where is the cyborg?” my dad asks.

“He is above us, I knocked him out.”

“Good, now if I can modify this ankle bracelet to reduce his powers we can trap him in our secret base under the shed. Also, we have a secret base under the shed.”

 “Dad, we found that almost immediately after your capture.”

“Oh. Well, bring us to the cyborg.”

_________________________________

     After I took my dad to the cyborg he sent me, my mom, Cole and the drone home. Once he got back he told us that he finished constructing the time portal and sent the cyborg back to his time. He assured us he wasn’t coming back. After that I told him “Dad, I’ve got something to tell you. Somthing that happened after the lightning strike.”

“Zack, I know of your speed and it is not from the lightning strike. It’s from me, I have super speed, too and it apparently passed on to you. The lightning must have somehow... jump started your powers.”

“So, that is why you didn’t seem concerned at the hospital and why you didn’t want the doctors to do tests on me.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Wait, dad you’re a speedster too! Why didn’t you tell me.”

“I was going to tell you but the cyborg captured us. The band on my ankle was an inhibitor...it blocks the energy we use so I couldn’t use my powers.”

“Powers? As in plural?”

“Zack, son” my dad said, smiling at me…”I have a lot to teach you. Now lets get back to that celebration with you mom, Sylvia and Cole.” 

“Dad, I want to race you!”

“Oh son,” my dad puts his hand on my shoulder, “I don’t think you’re ready to beat me in a sprint around the globe just yet.”

“No Dad,” I put my hand on his shoulder, “I mean a race in the gokarts in the basement of our fancy shed,” and I took off a fast as I could to the basement.

_________________________________

The End