[Vol. 3] Chapter 11: Derek Lin
Rain came down in sheets over Manhattan. Lightning occasionally split the dark clouds, followed by rolling thunder, as though a god were beating war drums in the sky.
On the first floor of Stuyvesant High School’s library, Derek Lin stood in the hallway, gazing out at the torrential rain.
He was short, wearing a plaid shirt and brown trousers. His black hair was slightly messy, and a pair of black-framed glasses rested on his low nose bridge. He had a thick book tucked under his arm, its cover stamped with gilded Latin text.
Behind his thick lenses, Derek’s gaze was unfocused as he mentally reviewed what he had learned that day. Going over each day’s lessons and organizing them in his mind was an essential part of his routine.
“Nerd!”
The jarring voice yanked him back to reality.
A group of teenagers stood outside beneath their umbrellas, calling and laughing among themselves. Every one of them was tall, broad-shouldered, and solidly built.
They were members of the school’s American football team, and they looked as though they had been raised on growth hormones. Beside them, Derek looked like a scrawny little runt.
Among the noisy teenagers was a blond boy named Fred, one of Derek’s classmates. Fred had disliked him for a long time.
Seeing Derek trapped by the downpour, Fred stood beneath his black umbrella and sneered with malicious delight.
“Hey, nerd! Why don’t you use that book as an umbrella? Looks like you’re stuck here. Your dad’s too busy cooking noodles at his restaurant to come get you!”
His friends joined in, hurling racist slurs and filthy insults. Making other people miserable was one of their favorite pastimes.
The boys laughed beneath their umbrellas as the rain hammered down. Derek stood by the window without saying a word.
“Derek! I’m here to pick you up!”
The affectionate call came in a sweet, lovely voice, making every boy turn to look.
A red-haired girl was running toward Derek beneath a brown umbrella, splashing through the puddles.
She was beautiful, with clear, lively jade-green eyes and long hair as red as fire. Her cream-colored blouse accentuated her ample chest, while very short, tight-fitting denim shorts with white frayed trim showed off her long legs. She wore pink cutout sandals.
She hurried through the pouring rain, sending countless crystalline sprays of water flying with every step.
“Who’s that babe? Damn, she’s hot!”
“Does she have a boyfriend? I’m dumping Wendy and asking her out!”
The football players stared at her without blinking, practically drooling.
“She has a boyfriend,” Fred said darkly.
“Who?” the boy who had been ready to dump his girlfriend asked impatiently.
“That nerd Derek!” Fred spat viciously.
The football players fell silent.
They watched as the beautiful redhead climbed the library’s stone steps beneath her large umbrella. Derek, wearing his glasses, smiled at her in greeting, stepped beneath the umbrella, and gently took the handle from her.
Beneath the brown umbrella, the two walked close together toward the school gates.
The football players could only stare in stunned disbelief. If they were honest with themselves, even the prettiest of their girlfriends couldn’t compare to that redhead.
“What kind of damn luck does that nerd have?” someone muttered bitterly.
...
Derek walked beside the red-haired girl, Elizabeth Griffin, through the seemingly endless downpour.
Raindrops drummed against the broad brown umbrella, forming a curtain around its edges that seemed to shut out the rest of the world. Their shoulders pressed together, and their hearts seemed to draw close as well.
“Elizabeth, how did you know I was in the library?” Derek still had the thick book tucked under his arm.
“If you’re not in your classroom, you’re definitely in the library. It wasn’t hard to guess!”
Elizabeth hopped over a puddle. Derek took a quick step to follow her while holding the umbrella.
She slid her hand over his on the handle. “You’ve been holding it for a while. Your arm must be tired. Let me take it.”
“I’m fine,” he said softly.
“Did you get into MIT?” she asked.
“I got the email this afternoon. I’m in.”
Derek smiled, but he showed little surprise or excitement. Getting into MIT seemed to have been a foregone conclusion for him.
“Wow! I’m so jealous!” Elizabeth gazed at him with admiration. “I’m not nearly as smart as you, and I can’t get into Yale on my own. But Dad’s determined to pull strings and get me into an Ivy League school.”
“Don’t put yourself down. Most people are more or less the same in terms of intelligence. You just haven’t really applied yourself,” Derek said mildly.
Elizabeth envied his grades, but he envied her family circumstances just as much. She was the cherished daughter of a well-off middle-class family, and her family was also a branch of a much larger clan.
Derek’s family was far less fortunate. Decades ago, his father, a native of Fujian Province, China, took out a loan to pay a snakehead (human smuggler) to arrange his illegal entry into the United States.
His mother had died of an illness when he was little. Ever since, father and son had depended on each other, making a living by running a small Chinese restaurant on a street corner.
Elizabeth Griffin attended an elite private high school. The two had met by chance—or, more precisely, because of Derek’s ability.
Yes, Derek had a superpower.
He never showed it off, though. His particular power was too embarrassing to mention, let alone brag about.
Later, he began tutoring Elizabeth, and the two teenagers quickly fell in love. Elizabeth knew that, despite looking like a nerd who did nothing but study, Derek was actually meticulous, quick-witted, and exceptionally intelligent.
“What did you borrow from the library?” she asked curiously. “It’s a Latin book! I can barely make out a few letters.”
“The title translates as *Behind the Scenes in Gotham: The Origins of the Court of Owls*,” Derek told her. “Latin actually isn’t that difficult. It has a lot in common with English. I taught myself the basics of reading and writing it in two weeks. English is your first language too, so I’m sure you could pick it up pretty quickly.”
“Uh-huh.” Elizabeth gazed at the brick-thick Latin book with awe.
“As a huge Batman fan, I have to know about the forces he’s fighting behind the scenes.” Derek adjusted his glasses with a smile.
Only when he spoke about Batman did his usually composed face light up with excitement.
Elizabeth knew Derek was obsessed with Batman. He was a complete fanboy.
His father had once been tricked into going to Gotham to perform forced labor, until Batman rescued him. After Derek was born, his father had raised him on stories of Batman’s heroism.
Influenced by those stories, Derek became an ardent admirer of Batman. Batman had no superpowers, yet he continued fighting Gotham’s criminal forces with unyielding determination. That spirit had helped Derek endure the bullying he faced at school.
He lived in New York, but his heart had always been in Gotham.
As far as he was concerned, “New York’s superheroes—Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four—aren’t fit even to polish Batman’s boots!”
He even planned to risk his life by visiting Gotham after graduating from high school. With a little luck, he might get to see Batman in person.
Gotham had the highest crime rate of any city, and its danger was obvious to everyone. But Derek wasn’t afraid. He believed that if he ever found himself in trouble there, Batman would come to save him.
The downpour grew heavier, threatening to develop into a full-blown storm.
Elizabeth hugged herself against the cold wind and rain. Her thin clothes offered little warmth, and she was shivering. Fortunately, they only had to go around another block to reach her home.
“Let’s take a shortcut,” Derek suggested.
He could see that Elizabeth was cold, but he had no jacket to lend her. Instead, he suggested taking a pitch-dark alley that cut through the block.
Elizabeth looked into the darkness and hesitated. “I think... people have been mugged in there before. It’s pretty dangerous.”
“Even muggers take a day off when it rains this hard,” Derek said confidently. “Who’d come out to rob someone in this weather?”
His words reassured her somewhat. They turned and entered the alley together.
Derek took a small flashlight shaped like a Batarang from his pocket and shone it ahead. Elizabeth switched on her phone’s flashlight as well, staying close against his side.
They had gone some distance down the alley when a dark figure suddenly blocked their path.
Derek raised his flashlight.
Its beam revealed a strange man with an enormous head, blue-green skin, and thick lips pulled into a broad grin. His head resembled a frog’s, and blue-green webbing stretched between all five fingers. He looked like a frog in human form.
“Ah!” Elizabeth flinched in fear and clutched Derek’s arm.
Under the stark white beam, the frogman narrowed his bulging eyes and licked his lips.
“Well, well. Two little children have delivered themselves straight to me. You look delicious. What luck—now I won’t have to go hunting.”