Luca had just started middle school, but didn't seem to be running out of cute points - his handsome young face, with sweet hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair, made it difficult for him to blend into a crowd, even though he was only of average height. His father, Ben, was the sort of man who didn't like to draw too much attention to himself. He was retired, had a small apartment on the outskirts of the city, and spent a lot of time playing video games. Luca wasn't sure exactly what his father had done for a living, or why he didn't seem to look much like him - he loved him all the same. Most of the time Ben allowed Luca to hang out anywhere around the city where they lived, so Luca could spend a large amount of time just hanging out with his friends. As for his mother, all Luca knew was that she was gone. Ben never wanted to talk about it.
At school, Luca was quite popular, but always busy. He was captain of the swim team, soccer team, and the chess team. When he wasn't occupied with one of the many clubs he was involved with, Luca was doing extra homework or reading advanced books. He did have some enemies around the school though - and of those enemies, the biggest one was Macie. Macie was a tall brunette girl who was obviously a future supermodel. She loved inventing things, and her inventions were always brilliant. The only problem was, Luca was always getting better grades than her. It made her jealous to no end. What was worse, Luca seemed to be the only boy in the school who didn't always do things her way just because she was pretty. Every night she dreamed that one day, she could build a giant killer robot and destroy Luca once and for all.
This particular autumn day had been a really long one for Luca. After a busy day at school, he had just enough time for a quick game of soccer at the park before catching up with one of his buddies from the swim team, Caleb, who was celebrating his birthday at the pools. After partying with Caleb and his friends into the night, Caleb's mum dropped Luca off outside his father's apartment. Somewhat tired, Luca took out his key and opened the apartment door.
"Dad, I'm home!" Luca called out above the distant video-game sounds.
The game sounds stopped and Ben poked his head around the corner. "Did you have fun at the party?" he asked.
"Yes dad" yawned Luca.
Ben smiled. "Looks like it's time for you to head for bed" he said.
"Good night, Dad"
"Night, Luca"
And with that, Ben went back to playing his video game.
Luca streched his arms and wandered sleepily over to the bathroom. As he lazily brushed his perfect white teeth, Luca already felt like he was half-asleep. He began imagining what it would be like to fly - to be able to soar up through the air and effortlessly glide around the world. Almost subconsciously, Luca stood up on his tippy-toes, one arm brushing his teeth, the other outstretched. He closed his eyes and imagined the cold air rushing past his earlobes, his clothes brushing in the wind against his skin, and his eyes seeing the most amazing sight - the whole city, from above.
Then, Luca opened his eyes to spit and rinse his mouth. It was only after he did so that he noticed something very peculiar - he couldn't feel the floor under his feet anymore! Startled, Luca let out a quiet gasp as he looked down. It was hard to see from his angle, but it did indeed look like he was floating a few centimeters in the air! Luca barely supressed a shriek as he began to wonder how he was going to get down again, and then suddenly dropped the short distance to the ground with a thud.
Luca's heart beat heavily. For a moment he thought perhaps his father had heard the noise, but luckily the sound of the video game must have drowned it out. He looked at himself in the mirror again. Did ... did he just levitate? For all that he had been tired mere seconds ago, now the young preteen was wide awake and wondering what was going on. Levitation? That was impossible. In fact, Luca could quote verbatim all the scientific theories that proved it. It couldn't be true ... or could it?
With a hurry, Luca walked briskly to his room and shut the door behind him. He pulled out of his chest of drawers a stack of old comics that he had picked up at a book fair years ago. His eyes gleaming, he flicked through pages and pages of pictures of superheroes, defeating bad guys across the galaxy. Was he crazy? Had he just been tired? These questions did cross his mind, but in that moment, he was too excited to care. What if he really had floated? Perhaps he could be Luca, protector of Earth and savior of mankind? He began to wonder if he had any other powers as well.
The excitement waning a little, Luca thought to try his powers again. He drew the curtain on his window in case anyone was watching, and wished to fly.
Nothing happened.
A little frustrated, Luca sighed, but he tried again. This time, he tried it a bit more calmly, as he had been in the bathroom. Cross-legged he sat down on his bed as if to meditate, imagining himself flying. This time, slowly ... ever so slowly ... the boy felt the bedding move away from his legs.
"Yes" he whispered to himself as he began to rise gently off the covers. He kept going until he was no longer touching the fabric with his legs. As a test, he reached down and put his hand between himself and the bed, to make sure he was really levitating. Then, equally slowly, the boy imagined himself landing, and began to float down.
"I've got to learn to control this power" he said to himself quietly while landing "This is so cool! I'm like a real-life superhero!"
However, by that time the young boy had begun to feel tired again. Whatever powers he had, he reasoned, he could explore them the next day. With another yawn, he changed into his nightwear, turned off the light, and quickly dozed off to sleep, as the sound of video games clanged in the distance.
Meanwhile, on a faraway planet, a pretty alien girl with sweet hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair was being interrogated.
"We know you've had a child with a protected species" growled the interrogator "And you know the penalty for such horrific acts. Tell us where you are hiding this child, or we will be forced to push for the maximum punishment."
"I don't have to tell you anything."
"That is your choice. Tell us, or we will have to kill both you and your baby. And believe me, we have ways of making this extremely painful for both of you. At least tell us which planet you had this child on ... and you will both be spared the death penalty, albeit left to rot in prison. Perhaps your child might get parole one day. After all it's not fair on them, is it?"
"I'm innocent. That's all I have to say."
"Lying won't do you or your child any favors. We will find them. Our scouts left our planet this morning, travelling through wormholes to every corner of the galaxy. When they find the planet and locate your child, their orders are to blow the whole place up on sight without warning. Now granted, scanning millions of planets could take months ... or, if you're unlucky, perhaps they are just minutes away from destroying your beloved child. Clock is ticking - when you are ready to tell us where your child is, just let me know."
With that, the interrogator left the room as the alien girl began to cry.
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