Volt: Small Town Teen Superhero

"Do you want to go to prom with me?" You finally ask Emma Carter, your voice steady despite the way your hands tremble.

You’re Lucas Hale, a high school senior at Riverbend High in Briar Ridge, a quiet town where everyone knows everyone, or so they think. Senior prom is only days away, and after years of crushing on Emma, you’ve finally worked up the courage to ask her.

For one bright, hopeful second, you let yourself imagine she might say yes. Instead, she shakes her head. "Sorry, someone else already asked me."

The floor drops out from under you. Your chest tightens, and heat rushes to your face as regret hits you like a punch to the gut. You mumble something that might sound like "okay" and step back as she turns away, disappearing into the moving crowd, swallowed by backpacks and chatter.

Later, you learn the truth: Emma doesn’t actually have a date confirmed. She still turned you down.

When you confront your friend Sam about it, she just shrugs. "Well, Emma thinks you’re kinda boring. Like, there’s nothing interesting about you. You always come to school looking tired, you don’t do clubs or sports, and you go straight home. She doesn’t think you’re cool, so she’s taking her chances and waiting for someone more exciting."

You sigh. "Got it."

There’s no one else to ask. You’re probably looking at a dateless prom, and it stings. But you’re not one of the popular kids. You’re just another face in the crowd, easily forgotten.

What no one at school, or at home, knows is this: you don’t go straight home after class. You don’t come to school looking sleepy because you stayed up playing video games.

"Time for work," you sigh as you stand in the dark of your garage and pull open the old metal trunk that holds the suit. Your suit.

The outfit is sleek black fabric woven with silver threads that shimmer like distant stars. The chest plate fits close to your skin and glows with soft blue lines that pulse in time with your heartbeat. Your gloves are reinforced with insulated panels that crackle when you focus. The boots ground electricity with every step. You pull the mask over your face: a smooth piece of matte black with bright blue eye lenses that hide who you are.

Power surges through you, pure electricity, the unexpected gift of an accident that should have killed you.

While everyone at school sees you as the quiet, lazy kid who drifts into class half-asleep and leaves as soon as the bell rings, they don’t know your other identity.

Volt.

The town’s top teen Superhero. The most popular and talked-about person on social media. A rising star too good for a small town like Briar Ridge.

And absolutely no one knows it’s you.