“And he wonders if maybe Nina is right; if a superhero is nothing but an ordinary person who believes that she cannot fail.”

“Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”

“Oh,that's right. You're a...what did you call it? Ah, a ghost hunter. You don't have to see things to believe them."Adam's gaze locked onto the persecutor's. "Maybe you've got that backward," he said. "Maybe it's just that I believe things you cant see.”

“What would you like to be?" Nina asks.Nathaniel tosses his magical tablecloth. "A superhero," he says. "A new one."Caleb is sure they could muster up Superman on short notice. "What's wrong with the old ones?"Everything it turns out. Nathaniel doesn't like Superman because he can be felled by Kryptonite. Green Lantern's ring doesn't work on anything yellow. The Incredible Hulk is too stupid. Even Captain Marvel runs the risk of being tricked into saying the word Shazam! and turning himself back into young Billy Batson."How about Ironman?" Caleb suggests.Nathaniel shakes his head. "He could rust.""Aquaman?""Needs water.""Nathaniel," Nina says gently, "nobody's perfect.""But they are supposed to be." Nathaniel explains, an d Caleb understands. Tonight, Nathaniel needs to be invincible.”

“It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.”

“But there was a part of her that wondered what would happen if she let them all in on the secretthatsome mornings, it was hard to get out of bed and put on someone else’s smile; that she wasstanding on air, a fake who laughed at all the right jokes and whispered all the right gossip andattracted the right guy, a fake who had nearly forgotten what it felt like to be real…and who, whenyou got right down to it, didn’t want to remember, because it hurt even more than this.”

“Someone who was happywould have little need to hope for change. But, conversely, an optimistic person was that waybecause he wanted to believe in something better than his reality.He started wondering if there were exceptions to the rule: if happy people might be hopeful, if theunhappy might have given up any anticipation that things might get better.”