“Not to burst your bubble or anything, but isn’t uranium radioactive?” Henry asked warily.

“Uranium is radioactive, but at a very low level until it is processed and refined into something much more dangerous. The real danger, as many of our people found out too late, comes when you disturb the rock that contains the uranium. As the ore is mined, a toxic gas called radon is released. Many Navajo died because they were not told. Men in power wanted the ore to create their weapons of war and withheld this information.” He relayed the story as if reciting from a textbook, but there was a bitter edge to his voice.

“The Diné people have known great misfortune, but in closing this mine and preserving its uranium, they have provided us with a tool that just might help us defeat our enemy.”

“And save the planet,” added Lois.

“Indeed.” Coralis rubbed his chin again.

Henry could see the wheels churning in the Wand Master’s brain. Yet the thought of working with something radioactive scared him. People died horribly from exposure to radioactive fallout from atomic bombs. He had seen pictures and watched documentaries. Saving the planet while dying in the process wasn’t high on his wish list. He looked up to see Coralis and Joseph staring at him. “Are you reading my mind again? I wish you would stop that.”

They turned away, chastised, as Henry tried to come up with a reasonable rationale to continue this seemingly hopeless quest.

If only radioactivity would work on him the way it worked in comic books. Spider-Man and Hulk both got their powers from it. And while the thought of spinning a web and clinging effortlessly to skyscrapers had its advantages, the idea of changing into an oversize green monstrosity held much less appeal.

Hulk smash! He almost smiled. Peter Parker and Bruce Banner couldn’t help what happened to them any more than he could, but they did their best with what they had. If he turned into a boy who glowed in the dark—and he was already halfway there—or grew hardened scales for skin, then maybe he’d become a superhero himself.

“You already have greatness within you.” Joseph implanted the thought.

“And with great power comes great responsibility,” he responded, quoting Spider-Man.

Henry gasped audibly. It was the first time he’d said something back through telepathy, and Joseph and Coralis gave him a congratulatory pat on the back.

“What’s … going … on?” Brianna drummed a paw impatiently on her mother’s forearm.

Henry pointed his wrists at her like Spidey would do. “Thwip thwip!” He could tell she didn’t see the effect of those beautiful sticky strands, cocooning her in an unbreakable web. “Let’s do this.”

Joseph led them deeper into the mine shaft. “Thirty-seven minutes,” Lois stated like a countdown to liftoff.

“I don’t understand,” said Brianna. “Isn’t the moon already full?”