Hero Super

“Young miss! Be careful! The lady said you’re grounde— young miss!” An old woman shouted, her shrill voice sounding somewhat unnatural and modulated.

Quinn glanced at her for an instant before jumping over the ornate hardwood railings and down the gold and marble-laden staircase, landing softly on the velvet carpet before bolting straight through hallways filled with paintings and jewels towards the kitchen. A few minutes later, she came running out and back into the grand foyer, her pocket full of food, kitchen appliances, and the entire pantry ripped from the walls— literally.

“Young miss!” The old woman’s voice irritated her ears again as she passed by the main staircase and dashed towards the garage.

’That woman took the carriage and dad’s probably using the bird— getting a car from the underground storage would take too much time…’ Quinn’s mind raced as she navigated the maze of hallways in Damsel Estate’s right wing. ’The pods. Emergencies are subjective anyway.’

She finally went through gigantic double doors and into a medium-sized hangar, inappropriately labeled as a garage in the house’s blueprint. Usually, there were a few ornate Tinker Tech flying carriages and a collection of cardboard vehicles, mostly biplanes or tanks, parked inside the place, but the two nut heads that owned those vehicles were currently out— leaving it mostly empty.

Her eyes darted towards the corner of the hanger, where a large-ish sign saying ‘emergency use only’ was bolted on top of what looked like a cartoonishly large carton of eggs. She ran towards the carton, opening it with a swing to reveal the eggs, or pods as she called it.

“Okay, let’s see here…” She muttered. “It’s been a while. Where is that— there we go,” she pressed a button on the side and stepped back as the ‘egg’s’ shell drew a line in the middle and opened up, revealing a white car seat inside to plop her behind on, which she did. “Comfy as I remember. Now, where was he again?”

Quinn opened her holowatch, swiping to the messages tab.

Calvin: Going to the park first.

Calvin: Wait for you guys.

“Moron, you’re going to have to wait for hours like that. Ina’s going to take a while to wake up.” She muttered, setting the pod’s coordinates to somewhere near the park.

The egg closed its doors and started floating off of the ground, hovering in the air as whatever engine powered it started up. The inside of the shell slowly wiggled, turning transparent.

Quinn spotted the old lady enter the hangar and then turn towards her, shouting something along the lines of ‘you’re grounded’ or ‘the lady will punish you’. She huffed, wanting to smack that cousin of hers. She wasn’t really that old, it was just a consequence of her powers. And she wasn’t really a maid, it was just a consequence of her being stupid and gullible.

With a press of a button on the console, the white floating egg turned into an invisible floating egg, slowly building up speed as it headed towards the hangar’s doors. Her cousin, panicking as she saw the egg turn invisible, quickly pressed a button on her holowatch. The entire hangar turned dark, steel shutters slammed down on every entrance and exit as red light started flashing as holographic letters appeared on the walls screaming ‘Lockdown’.

’Moron.’ Quinn thought, smirking. ’What kind of escape pod won’t be able to escape?’

The egg pod sped up as Quinn turned the dial, punching through the steel hangar doors and out into the sky. Within seconds, it flew through the estate’s defenses and towards the road, floating just above the asphalt while cruising with moderate speed. She’d have it fly over buildings if she needed to, but doing so would likely increase the chance for the pod to be immediately reported to the authorities. And, consequently, her mother.

Quinn laid back on the comfortable seat, pulling up the clip of Rockstar’s death on the pod’s windshield. With another few searches using Vanguard’s network, she also pulled up fresh articles and forum posts about the event. Protests and threats against the handler that gave the mission to a rookie, posts grieving the recently dead, and official statements from the management teams and from Vanguard itself.

Everything that had come out within the hour.

This was standard. This wasn’t the first time a rookie superhero was killed in action, and it certainly won’t be the last, only the most recent. Although usually, all noise will die down with eventuality; the news will move on, angry people will get angry about the next hot topic, reparations will be given and taken, and Bastion will keep on keeping on. Everything will go back to normal until it happens again. That was the usual cycle.

But today, Quinn was unsure.

“In Inner City…” She muttered, checking the article again. “And not at the edge— it’s smack-dab in the middle, near Ciergo at that.”

That was the most curious part. Rookie heroes and villains die, but rarely in Inner City or Central, and it should have been more unlikely given the current climate. Monarch’s been inciting the newbies hiding in Villainopolis, but it shouldn’t have been to this extent. At most, it should’ve only been low-level events: robbing stores, vandalism, challenging superheroes, and the occasional kidnappings of officials and rich people.

’Vanguard’s going to retaliate again after this.’ Quinn thought, sighing deeply. ’The kidnappings six months ago were a few bad actors and were apparently completely unrelated to what Empress and co. had planned to do. But this was clearly related to them whichever way you put it.’

She recalled when Empress had personally apologized and went ahead to help Vanguard clear out the ‘rats’ that targeted children during the commotion they caused. She didn’t know how many villain groups disappeared that day, but the two months of quiet after that stunt just made apparent how much her anger sowed fear through all villains who knew.

“Enough of that.” She muttered, swiping away all the open tabs.

Quinn knew there was something more to it, but right now she’d rather think about something else than useless stuff like politics.

She glimpsed through the pod’s outer cameras, watching the people walk in the streets with the naïve belief that they were relatively safe. Even her friends were like that, although Ina less so, but Calvin definitely so.

“Calvin…”, she gave a frustrated sigh.

It was easy to make him sign the sponsorship, the boy was enamored with superpowers just like Ina was, albeit not with the same passion. Her best friend loved it for what it was. Calvin didn’t. At least underneath the surface, she felt there was something more about his interest and his drive.

No one consistently exercises both their body and their power daily just because. Not even Ina.

From their interactions so far, Calvin never honestly expressed his interest in being a hero. He could be one, to her he definitively is one, but his excitement towards the Academy had more to do with going there rather than studying hero-ing there. It was fragile motivation, but it should’ve been enough. Now, she wasn’t sure.

“I need to get him inside the Academy as soon as possible.” She muttered, looking down at the park as she got to it.

“I should buy some eggs,” Calvin muttered, remembering the eggs he vomited out earlier. “No, I should go grocery shopping. There’s no way there’s a grocery store near the Academy… or will we be forced to only eat cafeteria food for years?”

He laid his tired back against the oak-like tree he was using for shade, feeling the impression of the bark against his back somewhat familiar. Curiously, he turned around and touched the wood, wondering for a moment why it felt familiar until it hit him a second later— Ina. It was the same tree she would conjure up with the gym console whenever it was time to rest.

“She must’ve got it here.” He muttered, feeling odd for a moment before pinning that question to the back of his mind. Turning back around, his brows raised as a familiar pink colour appeared in his vision. “Hi there.”

The pink got closer before looking down at him with her arms crossed, “Why are you leaning on a beloved hero’s gravestone?”

His brows raised, turning around to check, “It’s a tree.”

“Look up,” she said, much closer.

He did so and spotted a gold plaque, “Evergreen Dale. Wait— I thought that was the tree’s species.”

“We’re in a memorial park, stupid. Everything’s a gravestone.” Quinn said, sitting beside him. “How are you?”

“You say that like we didn’t just get beat up by Ina yesterday?”

“You ask that like you didn’t just see a hero die right in front of you just as you were about to go to the Academy, Cal. I mean, look—”, she pointed below him, “—you’re fidgeting.”

Calvin stayed silent, lowering his gaze toward the grass below him. The green was cut and bundled into balls, he didn’t even notice. With a groan, he wiped his hand on his jeans, the green grass juices staining the blue denim— the exact pair of pants he got from Sam. Well, stolen from Sam.

Quinn’s lips turned downwards. She looked at her friend up and down before deciding to change the topic. “What happened with your apartment?”

“Hm? Oh, that… I transferred the lease to some white-haired woman. She says she’s—”, he paused, turning to her with confusion, “—wait, I didn’t tell you about the apartment? How’d you know about that?”

“You suddenly told us you were going to the Academy dorms early in the morning, means you’re either homeless or really excited.”

“You don’t think I’m excited?”

“Not enough to message in the middle of the night,” She said with a smirk. “Plus, you’d want to go with us instead of heading there alone.”

“I’m not that clingy.”

“You are. Since we pay for food.”

“I’m not that poor.”

Quinn looked at him with a smirk, “In any case, I was right.”

“Are you sure you’re not a telepath? Vibrating my brain and reading the thoughts falling out or something?” Calvin joked. He knew she wasn’t else he’d be vomiting right now.

“We could try that if you’re really curious,” Quinn turned to him with a grin.

He leaned away warily, “No thanks.”

“Pft.”

Their conversation came to another lull, just in time for them to notice a few heroes flying overhead. Three vague blots of indistinguishable colour, likely having just come out of the Vanguard HQ that was right in front of them. The rumble of a whirring engine echoed through the air as a couple of helicopters flew from the roof of the HQ, escorted by a handful of heroes left and right. Someone important was heading out, and anyone could guess why.

Calvin’s chest felt heavy as his heart started beating up a storm. The combination of the vague blots in the sky and the rumbling engine of the helicopter was triggering his fight-or-flight. He felt a creeping tension crawl up his spine as the sounds grew louder, making him unconsciously prepare [Jumper] and [Vigilant Aegis].

Their gazes followed the flying convoy, up until they disappeared behind one of the skyscrapers in the surrounding area.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked as she noticed his pale and sweating face. She glanced down, noticing the grass and the soil were turned to mush underneath Calvin’s palm.

“It’s not that I saw a hero die…” Calvin started speaking after a moment, releasing the breath he had been unknowingly holding. “It’s that I— I hesitated. Why did I hesitate? If I just made a shield in front of Rockstar, she wouldn’t have… I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m feeling right now. Guilt that she died? Angry that I didn’t help? Annoyed that they had to do that PR shit right where I’m walking through? I don’t know. I don’t even know if I want to go to the Academy now— I mean, do I even… fuck.”

She stared at him for a moment before leaning her head on his shoulder. After letting some silence run to cool him down, she asked: “How’s the kid?”

Calvin turned to her with a confused look, “The kid?”

“The one you saved, remember? I saw the video.”

“I don’t know? He just left with his mother after, I didn’t pay attention.”

“But you did when it mattered. You even used another power despite your paranoia with Oracle.”

He frowned, “I just… moved.”

“You did. And you saved him.”

“I could also have saved her.”

“No,” Quinn shook her head. “I’m sorry, Cal, but no, you couldn’t have. You were already shaking after protecting that kid. I’m not saying it’s good or that it’s an equivalence, but could you have done that if you had shielded Rockstar from that laser? It lasted more than ten seconds, and you would’ve had to make a gapless barrier of your pebbles. You know it yourself, you couldn’t have done that.”

He turned to her, brows furrowing as he listened to her words. In all honesty, she was right. He knew she was right. Running on fumes, courtesy of the impromptu training session, there was virtually no way he could’ve handled that blast and the debris, even if he hadn’t met with Ron earlier.

“We’re still just rookies, Cal,” Quinn reminded him as she grabbed his hand, “not even interns— no, we haven’t even started. All we’ve been through is one workshop that we didn’t even get to finish. Don’t blame yourself.”

“Yeah…” Calvin muttered, nodding lightly. “Thanks.”

Quinn pursed her lips and tightened her grip on his hand, “Okay, you want to get breakfast?”

“Breakfast? I already had—”

“I rushed out here, didn’t even eat yet,” she stood and dragged him up, “come on, there’s a good place on the way to the Academy.”

“What? Weren’t we going to wait for Ina?”

“Pft. We just ended class yesterday, that girl won’t get up until after noon,” Quinn smirked.

He furrowed his brows, “Would’ve thought you’d want to go to the campus with your best friend.”

“I do,” she nodded, turning to him with a wink.

He felt his chest lighten at her words, “I’m not paying for your meal even if you say that.”

“Who said I wanted you to,” Quinn said, rolling her eyes. “Come on, breakfast deals are going to end in thirty minutes.”

The two headed towards the nearby restaurant Quinn recommended, only sagging their shoulders in disappointment after seeing it was closed. They decided instead to grab meals-to-go from random food stalls while on the way to the Academy. Quinn wanted to drag him inside the campus as soon as possible, and Calvin was too tired to bother arguing against it— not that he was against it. Any food was good food, and he was sort of curious about what street foods his princess friend would deem delicious.

After an hour of walking, chatting, and the occasional raiding of nearby food stalls, the two arrived at their destination, hands and pockets full of food.

“That was a lot farther than I expected,” Calvin muttered, finishing up the burrito in his hand while staring at the archway in front of him. “VA?”

“Vanguar’ Acackemmi,” Quinn answered, “and weah, it's faw. Tha's wha I thold ou ‘ou ‘ake he kcod.”

“I have no idea what you’re saying,” Calvin said, summoning a bottle of juice from his pocket and handing it to her.

Quinn gulped it down, “I said ‘That’s why I told you to take the pod.’”

“That pod was a one-seater.”

“So?” She smirked. “I could’ve strapped you to the back or something.”

“I’m baggage now, huh? I see how it is.” Calvin said, rolling his eyes at her. He started looking around at the district they ended up in, “Where is this place anyway?”

For how much he’d been wandering around Bastion randomly in his free time, he had never gone to a district that was as green as this one. There were at least ten trees per street, ten-meter patches of grass per building, floor and wall, and one green recycle symbol on every sign to really emphasize how much they cared about the environment.

He thought it was weird, but somehow he liked it.

’The question is, are they super trees?’ He thought, squinting at the greenery.

“Green district,” Quinn said beside him.

“Is it? It’s hard to tell.”

“I meant the name of the place, stupid.”

“What? Really?”

Quinn slapped his wrist, “You have a map, read it.”

“Ow,” he checked the map on his holowatch, “Green district, there it is. Damn, I wonder which genius thought of that name.”

She shrugged, “There was probably a hero named Green something, I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask Ina for that one.”

“Certainly a good place for an Academy, whatever the case,” He looked back up at the letters on the archway, boldly displayed above like it was a sign for a fast-food restaurant. “Vanguard Academy… could’ve been worse, I guess.”

Quinn tilted her head, “Worse?”

“I don’t know, could’ve been Super School?”

“Or Super Learning Center.”

“Bastion’s Academy for Gifted Children.”

“Pft.” She stifled a giggle. “Vanguard Academy is good enough.”

“And big enough.” He added, looking left and right.

Meter-high stone brick walls lined the boundaries of the campus. Although it looked large on the map, just seeing it on paper couldn’t do justice to the enormity of the grounds. In person, it felt almost like he was about to enter another district of Inner City, and perhaps he really was.

“You can keep gawking later, let’s go inside,” Quinn said, dragging him by the hand through the archway.

As the two of them stepped forward, Calvin felt a wave of something pass through him. His brows curled as he looked back, scrutinizing the archway, the path, and the air in between. There was nothing, no shimmer or anything.

Confused, he turned to Quinn who was looking oddly at him, “Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“That— thing? When we stepped in, there was a thing.”

“What thing? Look, you can act crazy later, let’s head to the Admin building first.”

“Admin building? For what?”

Quinn smirked at him, “You really didn’t read the rulebook, huh. We need to register first.”

“I thought we’re already—”

“You? What are you doing here?” A familiar voice came from the entrance, interrupting him.

The two of them turned to the source. Quinn frowned at the person while Calvin looked shocked as he recognized the flabbergasted person.

“What do you think we’re doing here?” Quinn answered snippily.

“Voice Changer!” He waved to the fellow workshop victim.

Voice changer, A.K.A. James, looked at Quinn glaring at him before turning to Calvin with a flat look, “Again, I have a name, powerless— well, not anymore, I guess.”

“You going to the Academy too?” He asked.

James stared at him, “What do you think?”

“Want to come with us?” Calvin asked

“No,” Quinn answered in his stead.

James looked at her again, “You got a problem with me?”

“What do you think?” She stared back.

Sensing the weird tension in the air, Calvin tried to harness all the people skills he could muster to ease the heavy air.

“By the way, how’s Alden?” He asked. The two of them turned to glare at him at the same time. “Okay, touchy question… we’ll be going then, see you later James.”

“Hey! James!” A girl with thick glasses and light-brown hair came running, panting on her knees as she got to James. “Haah… excuse me. Ahem, who are you— they’re your friends? You have friends other than me and Alden?”

“What do you mean I have—”

“Calvin, Quinn. We’re just about to leave.” Calvin interrupted and nodded to her before dragging Quinn with him. “See you both later.”

“Uh— okay… bye?”

The two of them went off, leaving James and his friend near the archway. As they walked at a brisk pace, he looked at his friend. The pink-haired girl currently had a sour expression on, the event from six months ago still apparently being held as a deep grudge in her heart.

“You know he’s just his friend, right?” Calvin reminded her. “He wasn’t even there with us.”

“He’s still his friend,” Quinn grumbled.

“I consider Alde—”, Calvin paused as Quinn grabbed his arm and tightened her grip, “—’that guy’ as a friend too, you know?”

“The word ‘friend’ is that cheap for you? When did you last speak?”

“Okay, maybe acquaintance. Look, the point is, he’s wholly unrelated. Why were you so angry at him?”

“I don’t know, I just am,” she muttered. “Look, let’s just go and register then hang out somewhere else, stop talking about them.”

“Sure…”