Hero [1/100]: Applause

You collapse into bed with the heavy, warm exhaustion of someone who just lived through the strangest, wildest day of his life. Your body sinks into the mattress, your thoughts drifting as you tell yourself that things will return to normal tomorrow.

They do not.

You jolt awake in the middle of the night, your skin prickling with the sharp awareness that someone is in your room.

Not someone.

Two someones.

Your eyes snap open, and your heart nearly leaps out of your chest. Older You stands at the foot of your bed again, looking just as weary as before. Beside him is a tall, broad-shouldered blonde guy with bright blue eyes and a confident smile. There’s something about him that feels eerily familiar.

Older You pats the blonde stranger on the shoulder. “Meet Amicus Smith, or Applause. The son we had with Amber.”

Your brain short-circuits.

“What?” You sit up so fast your head spins. The memories of earlier hit you like a truck. Amber’s skin, her legs wrapped around you, the way you finished inside her over and over without a single thought about consequences. The idea that she ended up pregnant with your child is logical. It is also insane to think about.

You had a baby with Amber Collins. The captain of the cheer squad. The queen bee. The popular girl who didn’t even know your name yesterday morning.

Your son, Amicus, lifts a hand and waves. “Hi, Dad.” He looks really handsome, which makes sense, half his DNA comes from his mom, and the other half is clearly from you. The resemblance is undeniable. He’s half-you and half-Amber.

You blink and wave back awkwardly. “Hi… son.”

Amicus turns to Older You. “How old were you at this point again, Dad?”

Older You rubs his jaw. “Eighteen. Senior year at high school.”

Amicus looks at you with wide eyes. “I’m nineteen. First year of college. It feels so weird seeing my dad younger than me.”

You respond with a groan. “Trust me, it’s way weirder meeting a son who’s older than you.” Curiosity bubbles up, despite the absurdity of the situation. “So… how are you doing in life, Amicus?”

Amicus Smith, or Applause, grins. “Pretty good, honestly. I had a great childhood even though I was born to teen parents. I did well in sports. I was popular in high school. Got into a really decent college. Life was pretty solid.”

Older You crosses his arms. “Our son has no shortage of talent and potential. He could stand to work a bit harder, though.”

You look between them and groan again. “Did I become a serious, no-fun dad in the future?”

Amicus laughs. “Yeah. A little. Mom is even stricter. But I love you both.”

You stare. “Wait, Amber is a strict mom in the future?”

You imagine her yelling at a teenager while balancing a planner and a coffee mug. Actually, that tracks. Being a cheerleader captain requires a lot of discipline and hard work, so it makes sense she’d be strict and push her kid to be his best self in the future.

Amicus nods with a nostalgic grin. “Talking to you like this is insane, though. You’re a year younger than me and way more chill than I expected.” He pauses. “Oh, and my powers awakened at fourteen. I became one of the rising heroes in Star Haven. I based my costume on mom’s old cheerleader uniform, blue, gold, and white, the colors of Star Haven High. Things were great… until the Xylarians invaded.”

Your chest tightens. “What are your powers?”

Older You answers. “Turns out our children take after their mothers. Amicus inherited powers fitting the son of a cheerleader captain. He is incredibly athletic. He can’t fly, but he can jump really high. He also has enhanced strength, durability, and stamina. But his biggest power is Empowerment. When he claps, he boosts other heroes near him. He increases their courage, motivation, and confidence. He makes their powers stronger and pushes them to act beyond their limitations. He’s one of the best support heroes alive.”

Amicus sighs. “There’s little a support hero can do when most of the heavy hitters are already dead. The Xylarians… were just too many.” His voice holds a tinge of sadness, a sense of loss. It’s clear that he has lost friends, and probably other heroes he fought alongside, to the alien invasion. His voice cracks with quiet grief. “We lost so much.”

That stirs something fierce in your chest. Pride for him. Anger for what he has faced. You suddenly feel more determined to change things, to improve the future. “So Amicus got cheerleading-adjacent powers because his mom was a cheerleading captain.” You think aloud, “What would happen if I had a kid with Evelyn Park instead?”

Older You scratches his jaw, like he is remembering someone from twenty years ago. “The valedictorian. The kid would probably be a genius, have enhanced intelligence or something like that. Our super sperm doesn’t give out random powers; it boosts what abilities the kid would have already inherited from their mother.”

You ask, “What about Iris Knight, the goth girl?”

Older You smirks. “Probably something super edgy. Like darkness manipulation or knife summoning. You should think more about who you have kids with, how to father the strongest possible heroes, so we can maximize our chances of survival in the future.”

You sigh. “Well, we have twenty years until the invasion. That’s plenty of time.”

Older You shakes his head. “Actually, you’re on a shorter clock. Remember the compound I injected you with last night? Turns out it wasn’t perfect. It gave me side effects. One year of peak super sperm and pheromones. Then things stabilized.”

You blink. “So I only have a year to have kids?”

Older You corrects you, “You have one year to have super kids. You can have normal kids afterward. And your pheromones will also stabilize. Girls will still find you hot, just not hot enough to throw themselves at you the second after meeting you.”

You nod. “Got it. So I have one year to father one hundred superheroes?”

Older You nods. “Pretty much. Don’t worry, I’ll come back every now and then to give you support and advice from the future. I can’t stay too long, though; the time machine burns way too much energy.”

You look at Amicus again. Your chest aches in a way you didn’t expect. “I wish I had more time with him. Get to know him. Learn about… my son.”

Older You smiles, pride and nostalgia in his expression. “You will. He’ll be born forty weeks from now. You’ll get nineteen years and twelve weeks to learn all about Amicus.”

You scratch your head. “What kind of name is Amicus, though?”

Older You groans. “It was Amber’s idea, not mine. She was terrifying during the last months of her pregnancy… I didn’t have the guts to argue or tell her Amicus is a weird name. Her second choice was Lucber.”

Amicus winces. “I… really dodged a bullet there.”

He steps forward and gives you a tight hug. You freeze for a moment, then hug him back. It feels unreal. Warm. Emotional in a way you didn’t expect. “I wish I could stay longer,” he murmurs. “But I’ll see you again. Bye, Dad.”

You swallow hard. “Bye, son.” You turn to Older You. “How is Amber in the future?”

Older You smiles with a soft kind of love that hits you unexpectedly hard. “Mrs. Amber Smith is gorgeous at thirty-eight. You’re a lucky guy, Lucas.”

The image of future Amber hits you like a fever, mature, beautiful, your wife, the mother of your child. A thirty-eight-year-old MILF. You grin. “We are a lucky guy.”

Older You steps toward the time device but stops. “Oh, one more thing. Tyrone Williams will beat you up tomorrow.”

“Wait, why?” You gasp, remembering the huge Black football player.

Older You says sheepishly, “Turns out he was Amber’s ex-boyfriend. Just not ‘ex’ at the time we had sex with her under the bleachers. And the bleachers aren’t exactly private. Someone filmed us and sent it to Tyrone… he’s going to fuck you up tomorrow.”

“You’re telling me this now?” You stare in horror. Getting beaten up by Tyrone is absolutely terrifying.

Older You lifts a hand. “Look, it happened twenty years ago. And after a week in the hospital, I got better, got together with Amber officially, had Amicus, and got married. Tyrone and I even patched things up when we met years later as grown adults. I admitted it was pretty messed up of me to have sex with his girlfriend under the bleachers, and he admitted he went a little overboard putting me in the hospital, but he had anger issues as a teenager.”

“Wait! He puts me in the hospital?” You gape, utterly terrified now.

Older You shakes his head. “Twenty years later, it’ll just be a distant memory. Calm down, young me. I’ll see you again later.”

Light explodes around them. You raise your arm to shield your eyes. Your son waves one last time before he vanishes.

The room falls silent.

You sit on your bed, shaking. Terrified because a giant angry football player will probably break your ribs tomorrow at school.

But also proud.

You have a son in the future. A superhero. A good kid.

And you have one year to create ninety-nine more heroes to save the world.

But what do you do about Tyrone?

Maybe you should take the beating. Honestly, you deserve it for stealing his girlfriend. Maybe you’ll meet a cute nurse or doctor while you’re at the hospital.

Or maybe you should go to the teachers. They’re grown-up, responsible adults. Even if some of them are having marital problems, they’ll know what to do.

Or you could stay at home. Call in sick for the day. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet someone hot while staying at home, like the girl next door, a cute pizza delivery girl, a missionary girl trying to talk about religion, or even someone in the family.