DAWN OF THE BLACK SUPERHEROESDEISELA scream like that of some tortured animal lanced out down South street from out of nowhere. Loud enough to immediately silence a usually very noisy crowd. The scream did not stop however, it continued on turning into a grinding motor-like sound. That's when the other screams started.Their cries rose in my mind like hot steam, and it took me a moment to adjust to the din. From the few thoughts that were clear to me I could only discern that something monstrous was coming.In true South Street tradition, the entire crowd began to run, pouring down the street like a river towards Penn's Landing. Only a few of the younger kids just coming to South Street for the first time, lingered a little, unsure of what to do.I was about to run myself when I caught a glimpse of what it was that was creating this mayhem; a truck, a huge truck. It was barreling down the middle of South Street smashing and grinding up the cars parked along the street. Cars caught ahead of it in the bumper to bumper traffic attempted to get out of its way by pulling off to the side, but the wide frame of the truck covered most of the street and sidewalk. Its oversized steel grill was merciless, turning newly painted, hot waxed, aluminum rimmed rides into smoking heaps of broken chrome and ruined frames.Again I was about to turn and run, when I noticed someone moving against the grain of the panicking crowd, someone who did not have it in his head to haul ass like the rest of us. He was easy enough to see as big as he was, towering above the hoochie-mamas and wanna-be-players that were running in the opposite direction. I stopped moving, a little stunned, and tried to sift through all the panicked minds to hear his thoughts but I could not.From his back all I could see was the long leather coat he wore and the tops of his white basket ball sneakers peeking out from underneath as he strolled right into the path of the monster truck. I tried to get a sense of what he was doing, why he was walking toward what everyone else was running from. The fear and confusion in the minds on South Street that night were too much for me to read through to any one person's thoughts.The gigantic semi bore down on him smashing the parked cars along the sides of the street and pushing them before it but not slowing down in the least. Still Leather-jacket did not move, he just stood there, waiting for this monster thing to devour him and grind him under like so much chuck.I considered sending him a thought burst, a mental message, trying to get him to move out of the way but I did not think that I could focus my thoughts together quickly enough to be more than just a distraction to him. So I watched, as the nightmare from Detroit met Leather-jacket in the middle of South Street.To my surprise, and the general surprise of those who were still watching as I was, “Leather-jacket” was not ground under the big black wheels, or thrown fifty feet into the air. Instead the mountain of a man took the charge of the beast like a 400 hundred pound offensive lineman, locking his hands into that wicked looking front grill with a loud clang. He leaned into the Diesel and set his feet against the ground, the thick soles of his high-tops starting to burn against the black tarred street.I realized that even though he had somehow survived the collision with the Diesel, that he would not be able to stop it. Once again I was going to turn and run finally, hoping to expand the rapidly shrinking distance between the monster truck and I. Then like a blast I felt the disaster, the panic and fear of two score human minds that saw the same dreadful sight, felt the same emotion...concern!! The singular thought was so similar and yet coming from so many different minds that I became dizzy for a second. I then turned trying to see the same image that I was now seeing in the minds of over twenty people, all generating a ripple of excitement and terror.Finally I saw her. Young, she could not have even been in high school for more than two years, one of the many kids who were really too young to be on South Street that late. She was wearing a tight form fitting dress and a pair of heels that proved that this was her first time on South Street. Anyone who has been there more than once knows that you must wear clothing that allows you to run.Focusing my mind I searched out her thoughts through what felt like the roar of a hundred screaming souls. She was terrified of course, and had turned both ankles because of those pumps she was wearing, (her mother's). I could feel her fear which was so intense that she could not make herself move or even look up.Without listening to another thought I ran out into the street. The girl was in-between myself and the approaching Diesel monster. I should not have stood a chance of reaching her in time much less getting her out of the path of destruction, but I could now tell that the huge mountain man was actually slowing the monster down.I reached the young girl who lay curled up with her eyes shut tight. The closer I got the more powerful I realized her fear was. The cars that were parked along the sides were all being pushed like train cars in reverse by the wide monster truck, locked together bumper to bumper, blocking any path off of the street and out of danger. I could not hope to get the girl to the sidewalk;We would have to outrun the damn thing!I grabbed her by the shoulders, intending to shake her out of her panic, only to be greeted by a bolt of terror from her mind so violent that I was dazed for a second by the sheer ferocity of it. Being a telepath has its down sides I have discovered.It takes a moment for her to realize that it is not the end yet and though still strong, her fear abates somewhat. So then I can think again and I hear a sound different than the roar of the diesel's engine. Then I felt something begin to pelt me on my back. I turn to see big baseball chunks of tar flying through the air. Leather-jacket had dug the heels of his sneakers into the ground so defiantly that they had begun to dig up the street rather than be pulled under the monster truck. So amazing a sight was it that I almost forgot my own predicament until I started getting pelted by larger bits of road tar.Good thing, the young girl turned out to be very light and picking her up was not a problem. The Diesel was almost on top of us by the time I get up and running. The train line of cars started to buckle and one car slid out onto our path in the middle of the street. I stumbled a little and ran around it still feeling larger chunks of tar hit the backs of my legs and seeing some flying past my head. The roar of the Diesel's engine was deafening as was the fear in the girl's mind which overwhelmed my own.So close was the machine behind us now that Leather-jacket's thoughts drifted into my mind as well. They were so focused, so concentrated and simple that I could not help but to hear. One single thought that ran over and over again much like a mantra;*JOHN HENRY - JOHN HENRY - JOHN HENRY*Another car swerved into the street and I ran around that too and chanced a look over my shoulder to see the broad side of that car slam into and bounce off of the big man's back.*JOHN HENRY - JOHN HENRY - JOHN HENRY*Then the ground rose up beneath us as a large slab of tar broke free of the street from the digging heels of Leather-jacket. We fell as the tar broke free, the girls pain mingling with my own, our fear rising as we were then pushed along on top of the slab by the Diesel which threatened to over run us.Then it began to howl, it seemed like. The machine began to shudder and let loose frightening grating noises and it actually began to slow. Leather-jacket howled in return as if he realized that this was his last chance and he seemed to dig in even more.We had been pushed almost all of the way down South Street past several onlookers who had escaped the truck via side streets, but we were trapped riding on top of a wave of ripped up street. Now Penn's Landing was in clear view and despite the fact that we were slowing we still had enough speed to be dumped onto the freeway, maybe even the river.But then as If he knew it was now or never the big guy took a breath and heaved and the Diesel slowed drastically, the grating noise growing ever louder. I could see the muscles in his back straining even through the leather of his coat. The beast slowed even more as bigger and bigger chunks of road bubbled up underneath us. The Delaware loomed before us and even the girl had opened her eyes to see.Then gratingly, shuddering, hissing, and grumbling, the Diesel came to a halt right at the end of South Street. A few more fits and growls and it seemed to die, collapsing over it's wheels as it did, sinking about four feet down. It had the look of some huge animal carcass, still staring at it's killer.The girl and I stared, mouths open, too shocked to make a sound. We watched as Leather-jacket pulled his hands out of the front grille where they had been embedded. He turned and looked at the two of us for a moment and I could swear I saw the beginnings of a smile. Then he stalked off, back up the path of the truck and soon all I could see of him was his black leather coat and the somehow still white backs of his high tops, that had withstood what the street could not.Sirens shrieked up upon us along with cameras and an even larger crowd. No one knew it then despite all that we had seen but that was it, the Dawn. We had seen the first of the dawn of the Black super heroes, and I was to be one of them.end?
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