Powerless

Daniel grows closer to the supers over the next month, which keeps him distracted from his grandmother’s worsening health. His favorite game to play with his friends is hide-and-seek, which he often wins by tricking the supers into revealing where they are with their powers. One afternoon, Rohan interrupts a game because he smells lots of smoke and doesn’t hear any fire trucks. All the supers go off to help, except one girl who is too young. Daniel stays behind to watch her, feeling depressed because “he [is] stuck […] playing hide-and-seek with the Invisible Little Girl” (77).

After the supers save a family from a burning building, Daniel joins Rohan to stargaze. Rohan explains he can see detail on the moon as if he’s using a superpowered telescope, which makes Daniel feel very small. Daniel asks Rohan if he ever thinks about losing his powers. Rohan does and has accepted that it will happen, despite the others’ hopes that their powers will remain.

After Rohan leaves, Mollie arrives and walks Daniel home. Simon turns 13 next week, and Mollie wants Daniel to sit up with him all night to see what happens when he loses his powers. Daniel is on the fence until he meets Michael the next day. The boy struggles to remember why he stopped hanging out with the supers. When Daniel tries to remind him that he used to be able to fly, Michael remembers for a second before it goes away. He leaves Daniel alone at a table in the cafeteria, wandering distractedly away into the bustle of “kids with ordinary worries, kids who were just like him” (90).

On the day before Simon’s birthday, Daniel is packing for the sleepover when his grandmother comes to his room to ask him how things are going. Daniel responds without mentioning the supers, and his grandmother stares out the window at the mountain in the distance with a dreamy expression on her face. Daniel goes to Simon’s house, even though he doesn’t like Simon very much. Daniel almost leaves, but Simon starts to cry, and Daniel realizes how scared the other boy is. They play video games until lights out, and after that, they communicate with Mollie, who’s camped out nearby, by flashing a flashlight at her. Sometime later, the boys see a strange figure sneaking through the night, and when they try to contact Mollie, she doesn’t respond.

Daniel rushes to the campsite, where Mollie is returning from a bathroom break. The strange figure was Rohan, who came to stop them. Simon flashes his light in a distress pattern, and Daniel runs back to the house, climbing up to the window and finding a strange shadowy figure curled around Simon’s unconscious form. Daniel snaps a picture of the creature, who advances on him. Daniel falls from the window, and the “last thing he [feels is] his body hitting the wet grass and something breaking inside him” (108).

Daniel breaks his arm in the fall, and Simon loses his powers and memories. Mollie is upset with Rohan for interrupting, and no one has told Eric what really happened. Daniel tells Rohan about the shadowy figure he saw removing Simon’s powers, and the two boys plan to find hard evidence to convince Eric about the figure. Daniel reminds Rohan that he previously said he accepted that he would lose his powers at 13 and asks him why he wants to look for evidence now. Rohan says destiny brought Daniel to the town and that it could be their purpose to “stop this—whatever it is—from ruining another kid’s life” (116).

One night while Daniel is still home recovering, Louisa visits to drop off notes from class. She knows the truth about what the group was doing on Simon’s birthday. She promises not to tell Eric, but she also wonders if they really should be trying to stop whatever takes their powers. Unlike the others, being powerful makes her feel different, not special. She tells Daniel that she is happy he joined their group, saying, “[F]or the first time in my life I can forget what I am” (123).

Rohan gives Daniel a series of comic books about Johnny Noble to study for evidence. Daniel discovers that two issues are missing and that the comics’ author and illustrator, Herman Plunkett, still lives in the town. Daniel visits him, and Plunkett explains Johnny Noble was based on a legend, not a real person. Plunkett gives Daniel some of his original comic sketches, including ones from issues Daniel’s never seen, and Daniel finds a picture of the shadow he saw in Simon’s room. Plunkett calls the shadow the Shroud, and Daniel feels triumphant because “their enemy now [has] a name” (136).