Hero High: Figure In The Flames

by Chara, Mina

  It was as though he wasn’t even listening. Who was he to tell me what to do? He crossed the street, disappeared into the store and for a moment I considered walking away. It was weird standing in the middle of the street by myself. I didn’t want to vomit again, but then Ashley emerged with a bag in his hand, and once again, checked both ways . He joined me under an awning, and put away his umbrella.

  “Here.” He put the bag in front of me, and inside I found a chocolate bar and bottle of water.

  “You bought me snacks? That’s real nice and all but-”

  “No.” He said reaching into the bag. “The chocolates are to get some sugar in your system and the water’s because you should never eat without drinking. It helps digestion.” He nodded towards them as he held them out, his voice entirely void of comfort. “Eat.”

  “What are you, a doctor?” I looked up to see a smile and the gentle light playing on his face once again. There was a split second when my chest felt light and for a moment, I thought I’d been wrong about him looking plain, very wrong. He had one of the most interesting faces I’d ever seen. He was strange looking, but in a dignified way, that made you stop and look. He wasn’t handsome, just interesting.

  “Eat.” He said again with a nod at the food and so I took the chocolate bar and water. “Water first Fitz, it’ll wash down the sick,” he stated.

  “I know,” I said defensively.

  “Good.”

  “Why didn’t you get cola?” I wondered.

  “Because it’s fizzy, you don’t need that right now.”

  “It’s sugary. If you’d bought cola, you’d only have needed to buy one thing, it would have cost less.”

  He fell silent as I unwrapped the chocolate. “Shut up and drink,” he told me.

  I was happy to comply and gulped down half of the bottle before digging into the chocolate like I’d been waiting my whole life for it. I’d finished most of the bar before he spoke again.

  “Feeling better yet?” he said with a tilt of his head.

  “Much. Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it, Fitz.” The way he spoke he sounded as though he was bored, or waiting to leave. “Do you want to tell me why you vomited?”

  “What do you mean? It was adrenaline,” I added with a shrug.

  “Right. Sure.”

  “Why the hell does it rain so much here? All the time on Hero High, it’s always raining,” I said.

  “You’re changing the subject,” he boomed, “we’re a small island. It rains a lot.”

  “We?”

  He nodded at me. “Well. I guess you could say I’m a native. Second generation immigrant.”

  An awkward silence hung over us as the sirens in the distance died out, and the lights left the street darker than before, with only the neon of the city reflected in the windows.

  “What did you do with that house?” Ashley asked, his voice stern.

  “Huh?” I said trying to cough out the taste left on my tongue.

  “The one you bought with your fathers money?” It took me a minute to realize he was talking about my file.

  “I bought it for someone who used to work for my father, they ended up in debt trying to get their kids through college. Had to sell their house, so I, bought them a new one. No mortgage, nothing.”

  “And you think that makes it okay?”

  I glared at him, as he scoffed at me. “I’m not buying into your little Robin Hood fantasy. Did you ever stop to consider maybe that family thought it was condescending to have you buy a house for them?”

  “Condescending?”

  “Yeah, condescending. Some people don’t need your money.”

  I stood up as tall as I could, my head still only just reaching his shoulders, and pressed him against the wall with my finger. “And here I was thinking that pride wasn’t a good enough reason to go homeless!”

  He shook his head at me in disbelief. “Why is that even your job in the first place?”

  “Because my father won’t do it. He hasn’t done anything, not in years. I know I’m not perfect, but shit! I’m not nearly as bad as you think I am!” My head hung, the shadows of the alley blocking any line of sight he had to my watery eyes. “That’s a lie,” I whispered.

  I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, I was about to tell him off for it, but then he said, “And I’m not nearly as good as you think I am.” He was the captain to be, he was going to be the captain someday. “Finish the chocolate before I take you back.”

  I looked up at him, bewildered. “You’re going to walk me back?”

  “We live in the same building,” he said with a shrug.

  “But… But we just shouted at each other,” I said.

  “So? Finish the chocolate. It’s time to go.”

  The gym was a room like nothing I'd seen before. It filled an entire floor. Above, a huge TV screen reflected a faux blue sky above us, and right in the center was a full size football field. A camera crew was already in place, ready to film anything of interest as the whole first year shuffled in together. The older students were on the field practicing complete with cheer leaders at the side. We all walked round Coach Flat who stood in front of a large white board marked 'Practical Hero Training’. Ashley stood by his side.

  “Today, we’re sparring to warm you up,” he said to the excitement of the class, “line up to get your gym equipment.” Taking out a list of names he designated each one red or blue and pointed from one student to another to let them know they were working together. The pairs had been planned beforehand, matching power to power to make a good first sparring session, but when he came to me he didn't seem sure what to do. “Go stand next to Mr. Ang for now, Fitz” he said and though I wanted to ask why I wasn’t going to risk getting in trouble again. I took my place next to Ashley and his team mates did the same.

  Aya leaned over and held out her hand, “Hi I’m Aya.”

  “Friday,” I replied.

  “That’s David,” she said as their last team mate waved from the end of the line and I waved back. “You can practice next to us," she told me, "let me know if you have any questions, okay?”

  “Sure." I replied, "have you done this before?”

  “I’m a legacy kid, my parents have been trainers at Hero High for a while. David’s a legacy too, that’s how we met,” she told me, and David nodded in agreement. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Coach Flat wandered into the crowd of students, telling each pair how to work with each other while I bounced on my feet like a kid waiting for their lunch. Once he’d gone to every group of kids and they were happily sparring, he finally came back to me.

  “Fitz, you’re in a tricky situation.”

  “How so?”

  “Your power is possibly the most passive we’ve ever seen. I mean,” he put his hand out in front of him, and I heard a small pop as it flattened, it was as thin as paper. “Even I can use my power to cut stuff,” he said and demonstrated by passing his hand through the corner of the whiteboard. It was such a thin cut he had to poke it before the corner would fall off, but all the same, he looked extremely pleased with himself. “Even Mr. Ang can kind of blow stuff up, but I don’t know what to do with you.”

  “Teach me how to fight like a normal person,” I suggested.

  “Can you even throw a punch?” he asked steering me away out of earshot of the rest, “I mean, you’ve got a real disadvantage. The other kids, they have super armor, vortices, weird string shit that comes out of their skin, I don’t know what that’s about. Plus, I’m pretty sure I saw this one guy who’s power was killer babies. You’ve got thinking real fast. You’re gonna get hurt, kid, there's no way round it.”

  “I know,” I said with a heavy sigh. Maybe I should have resigned myself to life as a support hero, but even support heroes did their four years of schooling as though they were going to be working heroes. I didn't plan to give up within two weeks, even if my power was crap. Coach Flat threw me my armor with
a proud smile, and did the same for Ashley. “You’ll spar with Mr. Perfect here, at least I know he won’t kill you.” With that he pushed us through the door to the changing rooms, and yelled “Try not to have sex in there kids!” before leaving us all alone.

  My mouth hung open in horror while Ashley just pushed up his glasses. “What the hell is his problem?” I blurted at Ashley, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest, though really I couldn’t tell for the glare on his glasses.

  “Coach Flat’s just a weirdo to trying to make people think he’s interesting when he's not. He’s just trying to make up for his lack of dick,” Ashley huffed, and went to hide behind the lockers, slipping off his jacket as he went. Had Ashley Ang really just said that? It was so unlike him. Or maybe it wasn’t?

  I moved into the corner, and inspected all my clothes. The shoes, trousers, top, hard vest, were all the same blue color. I checked round the corner to make sure he was far away, only the metal lockers banging against each others gave my movement away.

  “What are you doing Fitz?”

  “Nothing!”

  “Interesting,” he said, “because it sounded like you were coming out of your corner. And I’m changing.”

  “I wasn’t looking!” I insisted.

  “Did I say you were?”

  “I was checking,” I told him.

  “For what? Me looking?” he said sounding almost offended.

  “No!” It was a bad idea anyway, fully clothed was as good as it got.

  “Why not?” he replied.

  “Why not what?” By this time I was properly confused.

  Ashley sighed. “Why weren’t you looking for me looking?” he said in tone that was just a little too playful, at least for him.

  “I, uh, um. S-should I have been?” There was silence for a moment, like I’d asked him a philosophical question he needed to mull over to do it justice.

  “Of course not,” he replied, returning to his normal deep monotone. What? That… Had I imagined that? I must have. The sound of Ashley changing returned and I decided to just do it, get it over with, so I whipped off my clothes, pulling on the uniform as fast as I could. It was all on in record time, and Ashley still hadn’t appeared. I was counting my lucky stars. What did he mean by ‘of course not’? I shrugged and reached for my hard vest. The back was all straps. I unclipped everything, lay it on my chest, and reached round to re attach the straps, only I couldn't; the straps were half an inch away from connecting round my chest and the one at my hips rode up. My head fell smack dab into the palm of my hand as Ashley showed up behind me making final adjustments to his vest, and setting his glasses back on his nose.

  “Something wrong Fitz?”

  “No.”

  “Okay then, hurry up.”

  “I am!”

  He kept his eyes fixed on me, knowing I’d lied, and now he wanted to find out why. My cheeks burned as I pulled on the strap around my chest and desperately tried to reach.

  “Does it not fit?” he asked

  “No! Shut up!”

  “Want me to get you a larger size?”

  “They have those?”

  “Yeah Fitz, they have those.”

  “Please.” I answered with a sigh of defeat. I handed him my armor, refusing to look him in the eye. He left without a word, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked round the corner to find his clothes all neatly folded in a locker with a red slip poking out of his back pocket. I moved forwards to inspect it without thinking. It was a menu for a Chinese place called, Maggie’s. I rushed back as I heard footsteps, and he returned with the larger hard vest.

  “Hurry up. Not gonna wait forever,” he said, sounding genuinely pissed off. I pulled on my armor as fast as I could, and tried to exit the changing rooms like I hadn’t been rushing. Coach Flat just pointed to the center of the room and Veronica came forwards with some paper rolled up in her hands. She took me by the shoulder, and steered me away for a moment.

  “Hey there Friday, now we’d like get a shot of you and Ashley sparring, can you do that for me?”

  “I guess, I mean that’s why we’re here right?”

  “Yeah yeah, but I mean after what happened a couple of days ago, the fans feel like you have some unresolved issues.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “When Ashley detached the live camera in the detention room. Normally we wouldn’t have noticed, but a fan pointed out one of the cameras was down,” she said as she took out her phone and showed me the rankings, I’d gone up a few spaces. “Our viewers want to get a sense for what went on in there, and since there’s no footage, we thought we’d film this. Okay? Great, get to it.” She slapped me on the back and shoved me back towards Ashley and Coach Flat.

  “Get your fists up kid,” said the Coach and I moved my hands up in front of me. “First you have to know how to take a punch.”

  “I thought I was supposed to learn how to fight?”

  “A large part of that is staying alive, kid, so put you arms up like this.”

  He lifted his fist to rest just above his forehead like a boxers block and I copied the motion trying to soak up as much as I could. I already knew the basics, my dad made sure my sister and I did, but I wanted to learn more.

  “Bend your knees, make sure you’ve got good footing, ” he said as he moved round to kick my legs and make sure my stance was steady. I stumbled back and he shook his head. “Get your stance right. Ashley, make sure she gets it.”

  When Coach Flat moved onto the next group only Ashley was left to frown at me. The camera moved in and Veronica motioned with her rolled up paper, trying to get us to talk for the cameras.

  “Okay, how would you throw a punch?” Ashley asked.

  I had thrown a punch before, hell that was what landed me in Hero High, but I couldn’t say that in front of the camera so I threw a strange slow-mo punch like I was trying to delicately scratch my opponent. I played it off like I had no idea what I was doing.

  ✰✰✰

  “A punch landed you in Hero High? How did that happen?” I ask, setting aside my coffee.

  “I hadn’t slept in two days, and I’d had a fight with my dad the night before. So I just, hit one of the investors when he was rude.”

  “Was it harder to get business after that?” I ask.

  “After hitting an investor? You could say so, yes,” she says with a wry smile. “People weren’t flocking to the company and my dad suddenly seemed very concerned with my life.” Friday sighs, and leans back. It’s not a pleasant memory.

  “Do you think your dad sent you to Hero High for your benefit, or his own?” I ask and wonder if perhaps I’ve crossed the line.

  She pauses, and chews the inside of her cheek, until, she finally replies. “Yes.”

  ✰✰✰

  “This is gonna take a long time.” Veronica mused.

  I tried to mimic Ashley as best as I could; I threw punches, blocked a few, and Coach Flat came round regularly to kick my legs and make sure I stayed upright. Veronica took me aside a few times telling me to talk more, or throw a real punch but Ashley never spoke up or got even close to acting the way he had during detention. He knew very well what they wanted, and the fact that he wasn’t willing to play along made me like him ever so slightly. Veronica gave up eventually and moved on, leaving a spare cameraman behind in case. I waved to him, getting no reply.

  “Don’t bother talking to the cameramen, they never reply.” Ashley added.

  “Why not?” I turned to the camera man. “Why not?”

  He didn’t reply. I shrugged, noting the glasses in his front pocket as I turned back to Ashley. There were blasts and hisses from the other students, some of their powers were easy to see; they lit up the gym in fiery oranges, and mystical blues, but others showed nothing and Veronica voiced her disappointment wondering what sort of special effects they could get when the episode aired. It was like a swirl of magic surrounded me; sure, it wasn’t magic so to speak, but I felt like
I was in the center of a wizard battle and I’d brought my fists to a magic fight. Aya and David had very different looking powers, but it appeared they had similar effects. They practiced in front of me, David could look at one thing and then another, and transfer their heat properties. I wasn’t sure how helpful that was until Veronica handed him a visor and a cup exploded. The lenses she’d given him were apparently super heated, so all he had to do was focus on his visor and then something else, and boom. Veronica tapped her bottom lip, and turned to her camera crew.

  “How about the name, Red Hot, David?” The crew all nodded in agreement, and she tapped her lip again. David shrugged, and she scribbled the name down. Aya’s power allowed her to disappear into objects as she threw them, catching them and appearing somewhere else. Veronica looked puzzled for a moment, perhaps a little disappointed, but then she snapped her fingers and scribbled down Aya’s superhero name. She looked at me for a moment, and I waited for her to name me but instead she shook her head. “I’ll just call you Fitz," she said, "it’s easy to remember.”

  I sighed and turned back to Ashley as he readied to throw a few more mock punches but his eyes widened and he yelled “Fitz look out!”

  I spun round, and Ashley lunged, pushing me to the floor as a bolt of something just missed my head. I looked up to say thank-you just as Mary’s hand slashed through the air, leaving a trail of something bright which pulled me to her before I could react. Everyone screamed, and I slammed into nothingness as Mary’s power sealed behind me.

  A split second later I was hurtling to the ground until my back smashed onto something slanted below me. Wind pushed biting rain onto the side of my face, plastering my hair to my skin and a storm blared like the trumpets in an orchestra, a gray cauldron of cloud swirled and mixed with the busy lights below like an early morning mist. I was on the roof of a skyscraper!

  Not the roof of a tall building, the very top, standing right next to the antenna. The mirrored material it was made out of was seriously slanted. I couldn’t breathe or stay upright, I kept slipping down the water soaked surface like it was a slip and slide. I ripped the velcro of my vest apart, and saw the blue armor hurtle downwards. I was too high up to see the ground and the clouds blocked everything.