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The Red X
Everything went green. All Luke could see was a green glow, and it was incredibly strong. He had no idea what was happening. Looking around, nothing had changed. Everything had a green tint after a bit of time Luke started to get used to it and he was able to make out where he was and what was around him. He was in his bedroom, but it looked different. His desk was missing its legs. His bed looked like it had been cut in half horizontally. He went to the bed and tried to touch it but, when he did it felt as if it was melting away. This led to a lot of curiosity on Luke's part. The fade started to go away and Luke saw everything normally again. He went to look at his desk and it was coated in green and burnt him when he touched it. It gave off a glow that was the exact same color as the glow he saw when he woke up. Luke had no idea why this color was everywhere and why this odd green substance was all over his room. It concerned him a little bit. Luke’s curiosity got the best of him and he couldn’t stop thinking about if he had created it or if something had happened to cause that weird glow and this substance.
Luke wasn’t sure if he should tell anyone about this but his parents were bound to come into his room at some point and discover what had happened, so he decided to tell them. His parents explained to him that this was completely normal for the kind of “person” he is. This confused Luke so much that he had no idea what to think. What they mean by “the kind of person”? Was he different than all of his friends? Due to the overload of emotion, he did the only thing his body would let happen. He burst out in tears. It was more than that, he was bawling but when it came out it was that bright green color and left burns all the way down his face. His parents explained that he had a very interesting family tree. It started to get a little interesting with his grandma. She had married an Ethiopian god, the god had granted her one wish upon marriage with one condition he could make any twist to it that he wanted. Luke's grandma thought “What kind of bad twist could he make if I just wished to live an extra 200 healthy years?” So, that was her wish. She wished for an extra 200 healthy years of life. Just as he had said he twisted it, He proclaimed that she would be able to have her extra life but, she would only be able to give birth in the last 20 years of those 200.
180 years ago, his grandma was born and at the age of 27 she gave birth to Luke’s dad. At the age of 23 Luke’s dad got married and two years later had Luke. Luke figured that in all of the openness his parents left in telling the story that due to the Ethiopian god he got this strange acidic ability. He wondered what this would do to his life. Would he have to leave his school? Leave his friends? Never go to school again? Never have friends again?
Luke’s parents told him that he would be able to get home schooled or go to a special school for kids that are in similar scenarios to him. He decided that he would look into going to that fancy school. He found out that it was a boarding school and that meant he would only see his parents once or twice a year. He disliked that idea very much but it would be the only way for him to make any friends. He really didn’t want to go to the school because he didn’t think he would emotionally be able to handle being away from his parents that long.
His parents were convincing him to go to the school even though he wanted to stay with his them, but his parents felt that going to the school would be best for him and so that is what they tried to get him to do.
Luke’s parents were able to convince him to go to the school for people with special powers like him but they made a deal with him because he didn't want to go. If he didn't like it he would drop out after one year.
So, he got in his car with a trunk of all the stuff ready for his parents to take him to the school. His parents drove him to an area he had never been to before. Suddenly, the car jerked to the right and they left the road. At first, it was a super bumpy path that they were on- assuming there was a path- but soon, it started to get very smooth. As it go smoother the car gradually started to slow down until it came to a full stop. It had been a very long ride so far and it seemed like it was all for nothing because they were in the middle of nowhere. That is, until Luke's mom turned around and said, "Make sure you have your seatbelt on. This ride is going to be a bit different than anything you have ever experienced before." Luke was ready for anything. He had no idea what to expect. His dad switched a lever and the car started to move again, but not in the way you would expect. It took like a second to realize what was going on. He looked out the window and they were about 20 feet off of the ground and gradually climbing higher and higher. When they were above everything in sight the car zipped through the sky and the momentum pulled Luke back into his seat.
Suddenly, the car stopped and lowered back down. They were in a parking lot in front of the most extravagant building Luke had ever seen. A tall, slender man with black hair walked up to the car and greeted Luke and his mom. He walked around to see who was driving the car. He saw Luke's dad and immediately had a sinister grin on his face. Luke’s dad mumbled something under his breath and the man replied “Oh joy, you have a child now. If he’s anything like you, his time here is going to be great!” He turned around and as he was walking away he mumbled to himself, “His time will be great. If he enjoys torture.”
As Luke walked up to the school with his parents his dad explained to him that the man they had just seen was the worst teacher at the entire school and Luke was going to feel his wrath if he has a class with him. They walked to the dean’s office to get Luke is schedule and Where he would be living. He went and introduced himself to the dean. He was a short plump man with a long, gray beard. The man was thrilled to have another Dike child at the school. Luke had figured out that his parents had left quite a mark on this school, seeing as everybody knew who they were.
Luke and his parents had to separate at this point. Luke’s eyes started to get watery right until the point that a tear dripped down his face. Right after his parents walked out the door, Luke was greeted by someone that seemed to be a few years older than him. He offered to show Luke around the school. They walked through the main hallway and Luke was so impressed he almost forgot all about his parents. People were flying around others were climbing on the walls. However, the part that had caught his eye the most was the doors to the classes. Each one was decorated differently from the next. He had a great eye for art and loved to look at these. Luke got to his room and saw a kid that was sitting at a desk drawing something. Luke walked up and introduced himself. Luke quietly mumbled “My name is Luke.”
“Asher” the boy said.
Luke wanted to know what his powers were but wasn’t sure if it was ok to ask or not so he just figured that if he would be living with Asher he would find out eventually. Luke wondered what Asher was working on he said that “It was for the class Costume design.”
Luke thought that Costume Design would be a pretty cool class but he wasn’t a great artist; he just really enjoyed art. Luke looked down at his schedule and asked Asher if they had any classes together they had three of their five classes together. First thing in the morning, they had costume design. Luke was really excited for this. Then they had Villain Discovery I with Mr. Unhoflich. Luke wasn’t happy about that. But what was he going to do? Then he had PE. He thought it was kind of weird that he would have such a normal class at such a cool school. Finally, Luke had some boring classes like Secret Identity 101 and Sidekicks 101.
The next day, Asher showed Luke to Costume Design. Luke thought that it would be pretty cool. He introduced himself to the teacher who called himself Mr. C. Mr. C told Luke to try and join in on what the class was doing but, because the class was about to turn in their finished products tomorrow, Luke’s didn’t have to be done. Luke thought that because he had some type of acidic power that he should make his costume reflect that. He went for a green and black design, not only because green and black were his favorite colors but also because of the acid. He sat in the back of the class, in the only open seat, and started to draw. This class seemed a little bit outdated compared to the rest of the school considering it was using pencils and paper. He thought that with all of the cool things found everywhere around the school that all of the classes would be a bit more high-tech. Luke hardly had done any work on his costume by the end of the class because he spent most of the class thinking of ideas.
The bell rang for Luke to get to his next class. He packed up all of his things and ran ahead to catch up with Asher. He spotted his roommate, Asher in the main hallway talking with his friends. Luke caught up with Asher and he was acting differently around his friends than he had acted around Luke in the room the previous night and that morning. He told Luke, “Go away and I wish you had never came into my life.”
Luke was angry about what had just happened. He had no idea what he had done to deserve this. He just walked the rest of the way to Villain Discovery silently and was ready for what was going to happen to him. Mr. Unhoflich scared Luke when he had come to their car upon his arrival. Luke went into the class and Mr. Unhoflich looked up from his desk, smirked, and looked back down at what he was doing. After everyone had gotten to the class, Mr. Unhoflich had everybody open their books to Chapter 7. Luke asked where he might be able to find a book and Mr. Unhoflich told him to go to the library to get one. Luke walked down to the library and check out a book. He opened it to the table of contents and a face appeared to him. It wasn’t a face that he recognized- it was a glowing face that was just floating there. Luke closed the book and threw it on the ground because it scared him so much. He picked it back up and slowly opened back to the Table of Contents. It was still there and it greeted Luke.
“Hello Luke. You may be wondering who I am but the real question is how do I know who you are?.” The face disappeared then reappeared. It said “You are the one and only Luke Dike and I am here to help you whenever you need it.”
Luke closed the book and opened it again to try and question the odd face but it wouldn’t come back. Luke made his way back down to Mr. Unhoflich’s class and was prepared to sit through a very boring session of being lectured and reading the textbook. He got back to the class and sat in his seat. Mr. Unhoflich did begin to talk but then he started to show pictures on his board of Villains in disguise and had the class point out how they knew that the person was a villain. The biggest clue was the marking that all villains have. It was a red x that varies in location from villain to villain. They went on pointing out villain features and as the class went on there were some trick questions of normal people that looked like they might be a villain. Luke thought that he was starting to get the hang of things when he had pointed out 4 villains in a row. The class ended and Luke had a free period before PE. He went back to the library to study and work on his costume a little bit more.
He started to read the Villain Discovery book. He started in Chapter One. He started reading and the strange glowing face appeared again. It said “Luke, don’t trust people too easily.”
This echoed in Luke’s head. He thought about it for a second and suddenly, someone ran up behind Luke and scared him. She introduced herself very quickly and energetically. She said, “Hi, I’m Vivian! I heard you talking to someone back here and I wanted to know who it was so I decided to come back and see. Sooooooooooo, who are you talking to? I don’t see anyone. Are they hiding? Are they under the-”
Luke cut her off and said “I’m not talking to anyone. Why don’t you go get yourself into someone else’s business somewhere else?”
Vivian began to tear up. She yelled at Luke and said, “I was just trying to make a friend. Unlike most people I have a very hard time making friends around here!”
Luke didn’t really care and he wanted her to shut up so he let her stay over there. He sat and quietly read his textbook and got interrupted by Vivian every 30 seconds. He got through the first section of the first chapter of his book and put it away. He pulled his costume design out of his backpack and started working on it. Vivian told him that he should “make it more pink and sparkly”. Luke dropped his pencils “I think we just need to talk for a moment.”
“Why do you even go to this school?” Luke questioned. Vivian, without a word, suddenly disappeared. Luke felt something on his shoulder turned around and nothing was there. He thought that Vivian had finally left him alone. He turned back to the table and Vivian was there.
The bell rang and Luke hurried out of the library to PE.
After some time in PE the bell rang and everyone left. Luke grabbed his bag and left but was held up by Asher he pushed Luke against a wall and Luke was hit in the head with something.
Luke woke up in a room he did not recognize. He tried to get up but his hands wouldn’t move apart and his legs wouldn't move. He was regaining his vision from waking up and looked down. He was chained to the ground and his hands were tied together. He looked around and saw Mr. Unhoflich and Asher standing looking at him. He yelled at them to let him go. They laughed and walked away. Luke had no idea why he was being held there. He heard a door open and then slam closed and there was complete silence.
Suddenly a bright light appeared. It was that strange glowing face again. This time it wasn’t in his book it was just floating in the air. He yelled “WHY DID YOU TRUST ASHER? WHY DID YOU LET HIM PUSH YOU? WHY DID YOU LET YOURSELF END UP HERE?”
“I didn’t know that Asher would push me and that I would be kidnapped. It all just happened and very suddenly too.”
“I know how you can get out of this situation Luke. You just have to think about what your parents would do.”
Luke had completely forgotten about his parents. Because he was having quite the experience. The thought of his home and his parents and Luke start to cry and then he started to grow angry. The angrier he got the more that strange green glow he had seen when he woke up that morning was present. Luke felt a liquid run down his wrists and looked down. The rope had melted away. He tried to get himself even angrier by thinking about how Asher had betrayed him and how Mr. Unhoflich kidnapped him. Luke got so mad that along with the chains holding him down melting away the ground he was sitting on started to melt and before he knew it Luke was sitting in a hole about two feet deep.
Luke got up and tried to find his way out. But, Luke knew that he was going to have to find a way to prove that Mr. Unhoflich and Asher were out to get him and that they were evil. Luke wanted to get out and talk to Vivian to see if she had any ideas of how to help. Luke turned and saw that the floating head was following him. He asked the head if there was any way that it could make it look like he was still in captivity so that Mr. Unhoflich wouldn’t get suspicious. The head made an exact replica of Luke appear in that spot. Luke looked around to find an exit. After searching for a long time Luke found it. It looked like the back of a painting. Luke pushed it and it opened. It led to a place that looked very familiar. It was Luke’s dorm. He ran out and went to the library because that was the only place that he could think of that Vivian might be in.
Luke went back to the corner he was sat in the first time he met Vivian and started talking to himself. To Luke’s pleasure, Vivian came and found him. Vivian right away asked “Luke! Where have you been for the past week?” Luke had no idea he had been gone for a week. He thought that he might have been gone for a few hours. He explained everything that had happened to Vivian and asked for her help.
Vivian figured that if she worked on her powers enough she would be able to make them both invisible so that they would be able to sneak in. Luke thought that it sounded like a good plan but in the meantime he would have to stay hidden so that he wouldn’t be seen.
It took about two weeks but Vivian was able to get her powers to be strong enough to hide both of them. They went to Luke’s room and then they vanished. They went through the passageway that the painting was hiding. They went to check on the fake Luke and it was acting just as someone that was on the bare minimum amount of food for two weeks would probably be acting. They went through many hallways and eventually found a room that had a desk and a wall with a framed document on it. They went and saw the document up close and saw that it was a certification of entrance to the Evil Villains Association. It gave all of the information needed to prove that Mr. Unhoflich was evil. It even showed that he had his red x that all villains have on his left shoulder blade.
They took this document and went to the dean’s office immediately. The dean was very surprised to see Luke because he had been informed by Mr. Unhoflich that his parents came and picked him up because he was homesick. The kids explained the whole scenario to the dean and showed the certificate to him. He couldn’t believe what was happening. The dean called Mr. Unhoflich down to his office and when he came he was not happy to see that Luke was there. Seeing Mr. Unhoflich made Luke so mad that he started to glow green. Unhoflich asked Luke what was happening. He said “Asher told me that you weren’t able to use your powers.”
Luke explained, “When I woke up in your strange hidden base house thing, I figured myself out. With a little bit of help of course.”
The dean interjected and said “So, Asher was in on this too? I’m not surprised considering he is your nephew.”
Luke with all of his anger bubbling inside of himself he laid his hand against Mr. Unholfich’s left shoulder blade and melted his shirt away revealing his red x. The dean saw and called a strange long phone number and almost immediately after some big men walked into the room and carried Mr. Unhoflich away.
The dean then asked, “Where is Asher wo that they can take him away too for being a help in this process?”
Luke and Vivian had no idea. The dean apologized for everything that Luke went through in these past few months and assured him that it would not happen again. He also told Luke that if he wanted to, he could go home. Suddenly a voice echoed through the entire school and it said “If you want to find me you will have to look in places you would not expect to look.”
Luke figured that the school might need his help to find Asher so, he decided to stay. He also couldn’t leave his new best friend alone to go through all of this.
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