Face the Music by P.A. Cornell

“Where were you when you got your superpowers?” It’s the age-old question, isn’t it? Me, I was at the grocery store, buying a black forest cake and sauerkraut for the wife, who was pregnant at the time. I’m at the age where the stores are playing my jam. I’m also at the age where I say, fuck it, and sing along, not caring who hears. I guess that’s what I was doing when the change happened. That’s my origin story. That’s how I became The Earworm.

Those early days were wild. It took me a few weeks to get the hang of it—learning to get the tone of a song just right so I could get it stuck in people’s heads. Damn near drove the wife crazy practicing.

I know it doesn’t sound like much of a superpower, but I realized I could alter a person’s mood if I picked just the right song. I’d see someone down in the dumps and soon have them, “Walking on Sunshine.” A shy little girl got on the bus, well I made sure by the time we reached her stop she knew just, “Who Run the World.”

I felt like I was finally making a real difference. I found my tribe too. Time Bender, Star Woman, even sidekicks like Cougar Boy. The wife didn’t really get it, but she liked all the singing that followed us wherever we went.

“We dance a lot more since the change,” she’d say with a smile. And we did, even out in public. Things were looking good, and we thought it’d be like that forever.

“Where were you when your powers turned on you?” No one asks that question. I remember the change was big news, supes appearing on talk shows constantly to tell their origin stories. Even a few billionaires joined the ranks by buying themselves the superhero life the change hadn’t given them. Couture super suits with built-in rockets and flashy cars that could turn into planes—that sort of thing. We didn’t mind.

“What difference does it make?” Time Bender would say. “So long as they’re helping make the world a better place, the more, the merrier.”

That’s what we were aiming for with our powers. We felt they’d been given to us for a reason, and that reason had to be to contribute to the world in some positive way. But all that good seemed to demand a counterpoint. We kept waiting for the rise of a supervillain. It made sense, right? But it never came. I don’t know why.

We never once considered our own powers would be our undoing.

Of those closest to me, Star Woman was the first affected. She was using her power to light up a particularly dark night to help catch an escaped convict. The whole team was there. I remember Cougar Boy had his cougar friends hunting him down while I used my power to get the con singing or at least humming, to give his hiding place away. Time Bender was suggesting he try a rewind, to see if he could get to him before his escape. That’s when Star Woman lost control, her light growing brighter and brighter. The rest of us had to look away, so we didn’t see what happened—just heard her scream. Then she was gone. There was nothing we could’ve done.

The next day the headline read: Star Woman Goes Nova. Like some kind of joke. Like she wasn’t a person we all loved.

Soon the reports were all about some plague that only affected supes. Truth is, no one knows that it was a plague. Maybe it was just the change taking back what it gave us. Maybe we’d never been meant for these powers, and some force greater than us was just correcting their mistake. Who the hell knows? We discussed it at length, but what could we do to stop it when we didn’t even understand how or why the change had happened in the first place?

Most all my friends are gone now. Time Bender just vanished one day in what we assumed was a time-related accident. A lot of people don’t remember him anymore—like for them he never existed. I don’t know why we supes remember him, but I’m glad we do.

We’d soon learn sidekicks weren’t immune to what was happening when we lost Cougar Boy in that incident at the Zoo. The only ones who seemed safe were the billionaires who’d bought their abilities. At least they were cool about establishing that fund for our families. One less thing to worry about. They even covered Cougar Boy’s funeral, a beautiful affair at which I got everyone in attendance singing “Cougars Rock,” by the Cougars. Not a dry eye in the house after that one. God I miss that kid.

As for me, I’m still around, still using my powers in the hopes of making the world a little better before my number comes up. The wife thinks maybe I should take time off for myself, but “The Show Must Go On,” as they say. I’ve made my peace with it. Got my affairs in order. The family’s taken care of, and for now at least we keep living like we always have—taking every opportunity to dance.

For my part, I keep trying to make things better for people, one song at a time.

I haven’t told anyone about that one song though. The one that keeps popping into my head lately, that I can never quite get rid of. I find myself singing along with it at odd times, barely aware that I’m doing it. That’s how I know my time’s coming to an end.

At least that’s what The Doors keep telling me.