Mirage

“Mirage nabs a mob boss. Stayed tuned for this story and more on your Local News at 9, right here on WXYZ, Channel 7.”

The newscaster could barely be heard over the bustle of the midday lunch crowd, but Lou’s ears perked up. He glanced around nervously, as he often did under these circumstances.

It always surprised him that no one ever recognized him without his costume. After all, it wasn’t much of a costume. The suit was pretty cool, but his “mask” was, basically, just a pair of souped-up goggles.

People saw what they wanted to see, he supposed. Sometimes, though, they saw what he wanted them to see. That was one of his powers; creating illusions through molecular manipulation.

The illusions were his favorite power, but not always the most useful. When fighting bad guys, generating a concussive burst came in handy more often. He could also phase through solid objects, which was certainly useful but made him nervous.

After being in the superhero business for a couple of years, he was still paranoid about un-phasing in the middle of a wall, or something like that. He felt sure that would kill him, powers or not.

As far as superheroes go, Lou was on the older end of the scale when he turned super. In his early fifties, he had been a nondescript custodian for a very unconventional physicist’s laboratory.

After that equipment failure with the quantum entanglement device, Lou knew that Dr. Hartley was miffed the accident had happened to Lou, instead of him. Talk about stealing someone’s thunder.

At least Dr. Hartley had been gracious enough to help Lou through the early stages of testing out his powers. He was still the only one who knew Lou was the Mirage.