WHEN I woke up, it felt like I was on fire. Every inch of my skin burned. I opened my eyes, expecting to be engulfed in flames.

Instead, I lay on the floor of the same lab. The female scientists were crying while Luis stood beside them, looking sick. Jared leaned over me, pumping my chest.

I shoved him off. "What happened?"

Jared shook his head. "The system came on by itself. It must have been a bug in the security protocols or something."

Quentin snorted. "More like you didn't power it down properly."

"Shut up, Quentin." Jared pulled out his cell phone. "We need to get you to a hospital, Carter."

I didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford an ambulance or a night in the emergency room so I waved him off. "No, no hospital. I'm fine."

Jared still had his cell phone up, about to push buttons. "You just got a massive dose of radiation. We don't know what that will do to you."

Quentin rolled his eyes. "Look at him. He's fine. His head hasn't exploded."

Luis leaned over me. "Carter, I do think you should go to the hospital."

I stood up, feeling a little dizzy but otherwise okay. "I'm fine. I just need to lie down for a little bit."

"Maybe you should take the rest of the night off, Carter."

I just nodded and headed out of the lab. Knowing Luis, he'd probably dock my pay for the hours I missed recovering from an industrial accident.

I changed out of my overalls and back into my T-shirt and jeans, and walked out.

When I got outside, the cool air made me feel a little better. It stank of car exhaust and smoke but that's normal for St. Newton. Men and women walked the crowded streets, headed for home in their empty lives.

I headed for the nearest subway station in Central Square under the gaze of a bunch of superheroes. In this area of St. Newton, they had a lot of billboards for different superheroes like Mr. Black, Lovely Lass, Sunflower, and Tricky Dick. The heroes did product placement ads to supplement their income (saving the world was a surprisingly low-paying job) and these had them shilling for Monster Energy and Crest Toothpaste. One had Captain Maximum, putting all five of them as the City's Saviors in a billboard for DirecTV.

The only one I liked was a billboard with Doctor Damien Darkness in an ad for Peter's Gentlemen's Casino. The controversial choice to select a supervillain for their spokesman made them a hero in my book. I loved the glowing eyes and thin smile on that one.

At the subway station, I waited on the platform for the next train, mentally checking for injuries. The pain had faded, leaving me feeling perfectly fine. Actually better than fine. It felt like my ears and nose had been unstuffed because everything sounded and smelled more intense. Not necessarily a good thing since the overwhelming smell of urine filled the air and some kid played hip-hop music on his iPhone at a deafening volume.

Was I really okay? Could the energy that made rabbit heads explode have no effect on me at all? It didn't seem possible. Maybe it took time and my guts would blow up an hour later. That made me feel queasy.

As the train roared into the station, I heard screaming and yelling coming from the stairwell. In the mass of voices, I heard, "It's Captain Maximum!"

I looked at the stairwell just in time to see a man rolling down the steps. Actually, calling him a man would be generous. Only the right side of his head and right arm were made of flesh. Everything else had been replaced with chrome and steel, leaving him more a machine than a living being.

I knew him, of course. The Mechanical Menace had been a soldier before a military experiment turned him into a crazed cyborg that escaped the lab and wreaked havoc on the East Coast.

As he fell down the stairs, the Menace yelled, "Motherfucker, I'm gonna kill you, asshole!"

Not long after the Mechanical Menace rolled onto the concrete platform, Captain Maximum jumped down the stairs to land next to him.

It wasn't the first time I saw Captain Maximum in person. It was hard to live in St. Newton for too long before you ran into a superhero or supervillain. The anger I felt never went away, just got worse as I watched the huge muscular man in gold and red tights walk up to the Menace. He looked much bigger in person, way bigger than the six-foot-four they gave for his height online.

"Looks like you're just in time for the Express," Maximum said as he kicked the Mechanical Menace through the open doors of the nearest train car.

The Menace crashed inside and immediately raised his metal arm and fired a laser blast hot enough to melt the metal pole it passed by. When it hit Captain Maximum's chest, it just left a black smudge on his uniform.

That didn't surprise me. Captain Maximum was known to have superhuman strength and durability. It took a lot to even break his skin, and the Menace didn't have that kind of firepower.

Everyone else on the train platform had already run away, leaving me, the Menace, and the captain alone. I knew I should have run too, but I couldn't. I had just a faint glimmer of hope that the Menace would kill the captain, and that kept me there. I couldn't miss it.

The train car's doors started to close but Captain Maximum just reached out to grab them. The metal groaned and twisted as he ripped them apart, and walked into the train car.

Instead of fighting back, the Menace looked afraid and blubbered, "Wait, you c-can't kill me. He'll see you!"

The Menace pointed through the car window to me.

Captain Maximum turned and looked at me. It's the first time I ever met eyes with him and it made my knees buckle to feel the full force of that powerful gaze. The captain looked angry, like he wanted to kill me and had the power to do it.

That anger lasted just for a second or two before Captain Maximum broke into the famous smile that made women's panties wet. But the smile didn't meet his eyes that still burned.

"Of course, Menace," he said in a voice loud enough for me to hear. "I would never kill you. You're going to jail for a long time."

He grabbed the Mechanical Menace by his neck and punched him in the face, knocking him out. He dragged the unconscious body out of the train car.

As he headed for the stairs, Captain Maximum kept his smile and glare fixed on me. "Next time, you should get away from a combat scene, citizen. You could get hurt."

There was no denying how he emphasized the word "hurt" and the way his smile turned rigid while he said it. He walked past and dragged the Mechanical Menace up the stairs, and cheers and applause echoed down to me.

For a moment, I couldn't move. I had always told myself when I got the chance, I would tell Captain Maximum what a piece of shit he was for killing my parents, how I would never call him a hero, and maybe even throw a punch even though I knew I couldn't hurt him.

Yet when the moment came, I couldn't do anything but stare. Watching YouTube videos of him was nothing compared to seeing him live and he had made me feel like a bug about to be stepped on with his huge boots.

When he had finally gone out of sight, I found my ability to move again and ran up the stairs. By the time I reached the surface, Captain Maximum had dragged the Menace to a police car and officers had cuffed and stuffed him. His sidekick Kid Maximum had joined him, and Captain Maximum waved to the crowds for a moment before the two turned on their jetpacks and flew away. The people kept cheering, even after their smoke trail faded into the darkening sky.

I leaned against the railing behind me, taking deep breaths to slow down my racing heart. When I felt like I could move again, I headed back down into the train station.

The train car the two had been fighting in had been hauled away, and a new train waited in its place. I sat down inside and just stared out the window as the tunnel swept past.

One thing kept going through my head. The Menace had been afraid of the captain killing him.

That surprised me. Captain Maximum always said he didn't kill, especially in the public service announcements he made for schools. When his enemies died, the news always described it as an accident. Like the Electric Eel had fallen off a building when he lunged at the captain, and Carnisaur had been eaten by his own genetically engineered Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Were they lying? Did the captain kill supervillains when no one was watching?

Before, I would have said it was impossible and it still seemed hard to believe. Yet having seen that look on Captain Maximum's face, I could believe it might be true.

The idea that Captain Maximum could be a fucking hypocrite gave me hope. If the all-American, loved by kids and old ladies, Captain really did kill, I needed to find the proof. Maybe that would be the thing that turned the world against him.

I Googled "Captain Maximum kills" on my phone, and the result kind of disappointed me. Not only was there no report, photo, or video of Captain Maximum killing anyone, there were a lot of op-ed pieces and blog posts of people saying he should. That made me think maybe people wouldn't make as big a deal of him killing enemies as I'd hoped.

Still, it made him a bigger piece of shit in my mind.

When I got to my rundown apartment, a woman with long red hair stood by the mailboxes. She had on a white sports bra and black yoga pants, probably back from jogging. She had a lean and athletic body from working out every day.

I gave her my biggest smile. "Evening, Megan."

She glanced at me before going back to sifting through a stack of letters. "Hi, Carter."

I tried to think of something to say that wasn't lame but instead I asked, "Working out?"

"No, just finished. Bye." She walked away through the hallway to her apartment on the ground floor.

My apartment was on the third floor so I had plenty of time to beat myself up over how badly that went. I didn't know why I bothered to keep trying to talk to Megan. She clearly wasn't interested. Still, hope springs eternal. She reminded me of my superpowered crush, Lady Thunder, who was bigger but had the same beautiful gray eyes and long legs.

I climbed the stairs slower than normal because of my bum leg, unlocked my door, and walked in to be greeted by my little Dachshund, Brutus. I called him Brutus because the only thing he could kill would be a mosquito, and he'd probably get his ass kicked in the process. I found Brutus in a plastic bag in a trash can outside my apartment one night, decided he was the only thing more pathetic than me, and took him home. Sometimes, he was the only thing that kept me sane.

I gave him a scratch on the head behind his ears. "Hey, little fella. Kill anyone today?"

He just barked and jumped and wagged his tail.

I gave Brutus some fresh food and water before going to the shower to wash off the stuff that splashed on me and any other radioactive particles I might have gotten in the accident. Once I felt clean, I went to the kitchen to heat up some Top Ramen, while I told myself I was quitting that shitty job. Of course, I didn't have any idea how I would get another job but thinking about quitting made me feel good. Just like it made me feel good every day when I told myself I would quit. I knew I wouldn't, really.

I wanted to play the latest Call of Duty on my Playstation but stopped. "Shit. Forgot the console's busted."

Brutus looked up at me with a crooked ear.

I wanted to get it fixed but it was out of warranty and I couldn't afford to pay out-of-pocket so I was stuck. Too bad because I really felt like killing some people. In Call of Duty, of course. Instead, I watched a little Netflix and went to bed.

A few hours later, I woke up, feeling like my brain blew up in my skull.

I screamed as the pain throbbed inside my head so bad it brought tears to my eyes. When I put my hands up to my temples, it felt like my skull moved under my fingers. That had to be my imagination but it felt like my brain pressed up against the inside of my head, like it was growing.

It had to be the side effects of the accident at the lab. I broke into a sweat as I realized it felt exactly like my head would explode.

I rolled out of bed, scaring Brutus who had been lying at the foot of the bed, and crawled over to where I plugged in my phone. I had to call 911. I had to go to the hospital, even if I couldn't afford it. If they could save me, I'd figure out what to do about the bill.

As my trembling hands swiped my phone and tapped the Phone app to dial 911, everything changed.

My head stopped hurting as fast as it had started. The lack of pain almost scared me. In fact, it actually felt good. A calm feeling swept over me like I'd never had before.

I put down the phone and got up to my feet. Not even dizzy. My panic over my head exploding gave way to curiosity. What had happened?

I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. My face glistened with sweat but it looked the same as always. Sandy blond hair hanging too long because I couldn't afford a haircut, a crooked nose from when a kid in eighth grade busted it with his fist (no hard feelings because he was just returning the favor), and little gray eyes. No wonder I wasn't exactly bringing in the ladies.

I swept up my hair with my hands to look at my skull more closely. I wouldn't have been surprised to see it cracked wide open but it looked okay. Maybe it was my imagination, but my forehead seemed a little bigger than usual.

My phone rang in the bedroom. I ran back to sweep it off the floor. Only a couple people had my number; my parole officer and my brother, Tobias.

My brother is proof of nurture over nature, I guess. He grew up with different foster parents because the people who wanted him didn't want me. While my foster parents beat me every time I sneezed too hard, his fosters gave him love and kindness. Maybe that's why he didn't end up in juvenile detention or jail. In fact, he went to college and became a lawyer, which came in handy when I needed to write appeals or apply for parole.

Other than that, we didn't really talk much. I think I disappointed him. Or maybe I was just jealous.

I thought about declining the call but I needed to talk to someone so I accepted it.

"Hey, little bro," he said.

"Hey, Toby. How're you doing?"

A pause followed and I realized it was because I hadn't asked how it was hanging like I usually did. It wouldn't seem that unusual if you didn't know me as well as Tobias did. In fact, it struck me as kind of odd, too. I don't think I had ever said "how're you doing" in my life.

"Doing okay. Just wanted to see how the new job was going."

I wanted to say that wasn't important and tell him about the accident but something stopped me. Maybe I thought he would think I was crazy or make me go to the hospital. Or maybe I just didn't feel comfortable about sharing something personal, even if he was my brother.

I just said, "Uh, it's going pretty well. Just got off work, actually."

Once again, he paused because I was talking weird. I did feel off. All these new words popped into my head.

"You feeling okay, Car?"

That's the opening I needed to tell him what happened but I said "Yeah, I'm good" instead. I wasn't sure why but I wasn't ready to talk about it.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I saw an ad for a job you might be interested in. I forwarded you an email. Did you get it?"

I rolled my eyes. I hadn't seen the email but without even looking at the email, I knew it would be some high-paying job with requirements I didn't have. That what all the jobs he sent me were like.

I sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, I saw it. I don't qualify for it."

"Aw, come on, Carter. You didn't even try. Maybe they'll make an exception if you apply. You never know."

I started breathing harder. "Toby, nobody's gonna hire me. I already have a job and I fought hard to get it."

"You could do more than mop and take out trash, Carter. You're a smart guy. You just need a little ambition."

I took a deep breath. We always had this argument and I was sick of it. "Tobias, I have more ambition than you'll ever know. I see these morons running this city and know I could do it ten times better. We pay a ton of taxes because of all the damage the supers cause. Make the superheroes register so they're under control. Better yet, make them put on a badge if they wanna fight crime. Legalize drugs so the cops can spend their time on something important. But nobody's gonna elect me mayor anytime soon. Even McDonald's looks at my criminal record and shows me the door. You got all the breaks, Toby. Everything came out all right for you while I got the short end of the stick. Go back to polishing that silver spoon in your mouth before you talk to me about ambition."

There was silence on the line for a moment before he spoke again. "Little brother, I'm sorry you had a hard life. You know that. But I don't think that's fair. I can't change what happened to you in the past, just what's happening going forward."

I felt kind of guilty. I knew it wasn't his fault but I was just really jealous of how things turned out for him.

I hung up the phone and threw it onto the bed, and just sat there taking deep breaths. Tobias had a rosy view of the world, just like I had a dark view of it. To me, life was a struggle where the people at the top got all the breaks and the rest of us just scrounge for crumbs.

It made me think of all the benefits he had while I had to struggle through life. If only I'd had what Tobias had, I could rule the world.

Instead, I just went through the list of people who tried to step on my head. My foster father, my other foster parents, the guys in school who tried to take my lunch or just have some fun using me for a punching bag, the judge who kept ordering me to juvie for peanuts, and Captain Maximum. Thinking of all the people who had beaten me down gave me an urge to turn the tables, start bossing other people around.

I shook my head, remembering the headache that had come and gone. I did feel different. Despite what I said to Tobias, I'd never thought about running the city before. It all just seemed so clear to me now.

Of course, I wasn't going to run for mayor or anything. No one would elect me for city dog catcher. Still, it had been a long time since I thought of being something more ambitious.

I was glad my head didn't blow up but I needed to calm down and unwind. Normally, I would play a shooter on my Playstation. I really wished it would work.

I looked at the Playstation and something went through my head like a lightning bolt. I went to my closet for a toolbox and found a screwdriver, turned the Playstation over, and unscrewed the screws on the bottom. Lifting off the case, I studied the internal components.

I'd never been a technical person. I didn't even know how to change my car's oil. At that moment, that all changed. Studying the small parts, they all made sense. I could see how the HDMI ports connected to the motherboard. The optical drive. It felt like one of those pictures where it looked like a beautiful woman until you looked at it another way, and it looked like an old woman. Same picture, just your perspective had changed.

I reached in and snapped in a loose wire. Then I turned it over, put back the screws, and turned it on. The Playstation worked perfectly.

I picked up my controller and booted up Call of Duty. As it powered on, it struck me the internal components were set up all wrong. Sloppy. I turned off the console again, took off the case, and studied the layout. After a few seconds, I started unscrewing parts inside and moving them around. Some of them had glue on them but I mixed together some chemicals from my cleaning supplies to dissolve them.

In a few minutes, I had another thought. The whole thing seemed so primitive. A monkey could bash something like it together. I had ideas that could make it better. It seemed so obvious that I wondered why no one had thought of it before.

I bolted off through my apartment, grabbing anything electronic I could find. I opened them all up, from my microwave to my TV. I took some parts from each of them, plugged them into the Playstation, and got to work.

It took me an hour and sweat dripped down my face as I worked but when I was done, the whole thing wouldn't fit in the Playstation case anymore. That didn't matter.

I switched it on.

Instead of putting Call of Duty onto my TV screen, the game flashed to life in the air over the Playstation, a holographic projection with photo realistic sounds and graphics.

"There," I muttered as I grabbed my controller and started playing.

After a few seconds, I screamed and dropped my controller.

Backing away from the game, I looked at Brutus who whimpered up at me, and whispered, "What's happening to me?"

I'd gone from being a complete ignoramus about anything mechanical to making a holographic display in seconds. My speech and thinking had definitely changed. What caused it?

I wanted a beer. I turned to head for the kitchen but the thought of that ice-cold can inside the fridge popped into my head, and something clicked inside me.

The door of the fridge swung open even though I stood six feet away. One of the cans of Budweiser floated off the shelf inside. My eyes widened as the can floated towards me and into my hand. I took it, feeling lightheaded. The fridge door swung shut when I looked at it.

How had I done it? I just thought about getting the beer and it came right to me. I knew it had to be telekinesis, a term I'd read in a comic book that hadn't made sense until now.

The accident at the lab. It had to be. It had made me smarter, just like the scientist had described with his talk about repairing and increasing neurons. Even all that mumbo-jumbo now made sense to me.

It didn't make sense, though. Why hadn't my head exploded like the rabbits?

I remembered getting splashed with that cleaning solution when the blast hit me. Maybe that had done something. Or maybe my brain had some weird mutation that made a difference. I didn't know but it seemed like I had superhuman intelligence and telekinesis.

I sat down on my couch and thought about what I should do. All my life, I had dreamed of being something different. Maybe I really could be more than a janitor now. I knew what I had bashed up on my Playstation would revolutionize video games. If I could market it, it would be worth a fortune. I could be the next Bill Gates.

But I wanted more.

I remembered what I said about the city and how I could run it better. I thought about how much I hated Captain Maximum and wanted him dead. It seemed so obvious what I should do with my new powers that it made me smile.

That's the moment I decided I would kill Captain Maximum and take over the city. That's the moment I decided I would become a supervillain.