Doing research

Your heart is pounding fast after the mysterious man leaves and it takes you a while to calm down from the encounter. His threat had been very clear and you contemplate your options. While the idea of resigning as mayor after vowing to stay on sounds absurd, the man with powers is not the kind of enemy you want to make, especially when you don't know anything about him. You're also intrigued by his use of the word "we" that indicates he's not alone.

It's almost midnight but you're not going to go home and sleep with such a big decision to make. Instead, you get behind your desk and start doing research on your computer to see if you can find out anything about the flying man. The search starts with Superman, the fictional comic book superhero, and you look up his origin story and how the character was conceived many years ago.

Soon, you're diving deep into blogs and discussion boards about Superman and other superheroes, reading every bit of conspiracy and theory that's out there on the internet. Before you realize it, you notice the office starting to lighten up and you hear birds chirping outside the still open window. It's almost sunrise and you still don't know what you're going to do.

You're rubbing your eyes and thinking about taking a nap, when you notice the subject line on a particular thread on a discussion board. It's entitled "Superman is real." You click on it immediately and you see that the discussion dates back almost a decade and there are literally thousands of posts and responses over the years. Trying your best to try through the thread, you see that the discussion centers around a theory that the character of Superman and other superheroes are based on real-life people and events, that the comic book creators somehow managed to cross paths with them and learned about them. There are all sorts of posts about potential sightings of Superman-like figures and other super powered people. 1 post, allegedly taken by a scuba diver doing deep underwater research, shows a silhouette of a man swimming through the high-pressured waters at amazing speed without any sign of an oxygen tank. The diver refers to him as "The Water Man" which he claims is who Aquaman is based on. As for the person people think Superman is based on, a lot of the posters on the thread refer to him as "Alpha."

After reading through the thread, you don't know what to believe. It's almost like chasing a Loch Ness Monster conspiracy, although you're pretty sure that man with powers who flew into the window last night is very real. You're kind of zoning out and staring off into space when the door to your office opens and Ashley enters, holding a bunch of folders and papers in her hands.

"Oh! I didn't realize you were here," she says. "Did you spend the night here? You look horrible."

You blink and look at Ashley, realizing that the new work day has started. It also means the deadline for the mysterious man's threat is here.