Hero High: Figure In The Flames

by Chara, Mina

  “What did you find? Are we on some sort of case?”

  “Case?” I asked, unsure of what Jake meant.

  “Yeah, you know, like an investigation. Solving crimes.”

  “Probably not, no I just wanted to be safe.”

  “Can I see it?” Jake asked.

  “Nah, it’s not important, and besides it’s all blurry. You said you were hungry?”

  “Yeah. And since you made me wait so long, you’re buying.”

  As I pushed the seat back, turned the computer off and stood up, something metallic clattered to the ground.

  “What was that?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know,” I replied and looked down to where a small silver disk with a faint blinking red light lay on the floor.

  “What is it?” Jake took my hand and pulled it closer, squinting at the details. “It’s a tracking device,” he said, looking looking me up and down, “I think it was stuck to your top. And Friday?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s not Hero High issue.”

  I tucked away the tracking device somewhere safe, and tore it apart. I’d looked back in my room, my best guess was that it was the Dr’s. He was going to be very disappointed when he found he couldn’t pin point my location. I tightened the last bolt on the new junker bike I’d bought with what was left of my Hero High allowance, after sending most of it home to my dad and my sister. The bike was a little too loud as it rattled into life; I tried to shhh it as I turned it off, as though that was something you could do with a bike. As soon as it stopped I shook my head and clapped my hands together: ten at night, and I was leaving. I was leaving to do real work after several weeks of taking maths classes, and watching the Hero High cameras follow kids around. I needed to do something. This was my chance, to do what I’d really come here for.

  Finding that tracking device had forced me into action.

  I’d jotted down the name of the house The Figure had blown to pieces, and was ready to ‘investigate’. Every time I saw The Figure, it seemed like he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, and no matter what I did I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was lying. Something was going on and I wanted to find out what, even after the captain’s warnings.

  I pursed my lips and purged the face of Dr. Dangerous from my mind before throwing on my jacket and gloves and pushing the bike towards the exit.

  I’d only had the machine for a few days, I’d bought it from a junkyard, but Lisa insisted I get a license and she was probably right. I pulled out into busy streets where the night life of the city was in full swing. Pop music blared from all the department stores I passed, all the noise and activity could have been exciting, but nerves bubbled in my stomach.

  “Friday!”

  Huh? I looked around for the voice as I stopped at a red light. Had someone said my name?

  “Friday!” I turned my head to the sidewalk full of people, and shrugged. “Friday!” I looked again. Pushing through the crowds was Jake, and he looked very, very angry with me.

  “What do you think you’re doing!?” I shouted, worried he would run into the path of a car. I bounced up and down on my seat willing the light to turn green, but it was useless; he didn’t seem to care that he was wandering straight into the road. “Come on! Go green!” His hand came down on my shoulder. I’d never seen him so angry. The light pinged green, and I revved.

  “Oh no you don’t!” he snarled.

  I revved again, but something heavy hit my back. I allowed myself to turn and found Jake had climbed on the bike and was holding on to it for dear life. “Idiot, don’t hold on to the bike, hold onto me!”

  “No! Pull over! It’s way past curfew,” he cried.

  “There is no curfew!” I roared.

  “Fine! It’s past a moral curfew!”

  “No!”

  “Then I’m not going!” he insisted.

  I rode on, my face an icy glare. I felt Jake wobble, and heard him panic. He felt around, and finally lunged forward wrapping his arms around my waist for support. About time. “Got there eventually!” I complained.

  “Where are we going?” Jake asked.

  “You’re coming with me?” I replied, trying not to look back.

  “If you’re not going back, yes!”

  “Fine!” I couldn’t help but tingle at the wondrous sensation that was riding through the city on my bike. It wasn’t at all the same as walking though the crowds; this had a strange sense of privacy. I dipped into a part of the city slightly lower than the rest, and finally brought the bike to a halt.

  Jake jumped off, straightened his jacket, and sighed. “Where are we?” he grumbled.

  “This is the house The Figure blew up.” We walked down the alleyway at the side of the house and every now and again I stole a glance back at my bike, worried it wouldn’t be there when I got back. The sign at the front of the house boasted a rebuilding courtesy of the city. Some of the area had already been covered with tarp and covered up with duct tape to keep the bare wood protected from the city’s regular rainfall.

  “So. What’re we looking for?” Jake asked.

  “Anything. There has to be more to The Figure, I feel it.” I scanned the ground meticulously and found it surprisingly clean. Something glistened behind the dumpster that caught my eye just like the picture I’d printed out. I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket and lined it up. It was a wonder no one had found it.

  “Help me move it.” I ordered. Jake and I pushed as hard as we could. It only moved a fraction of an inch, but it was enough. My head tilted as I scratched a place above my ear. I was looking at a gold plastic syringe. A syringe? I picked it up and tucked it away in my bag. It was tacky, but it was definitely a syringe.

  “What are you gonna do with that?”

  “I don’t know yet.” I said with a shrug.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m not sure. The Figure is a bad guy. I know he’s caused some serious disasters, but I don’t think he meant to.”

  “You mean he’s a superhero?”

  “No, I don’t think so, but maybe he’s trying to be. I think he was trying to help.

  “If he’s trying to help, shouldn’t he be enrolled at the school?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know about that,” I told him.

  “Why not?”

  “His power’s a bit destructive don’t you think?”

  “I mean, maybe, but if he is, like you said, trying to help, shouldn’t we give him the benefit of the doubt?” I looked the building up and down once more and sighed while Jake ushered me back to the bike.

  “Can I drive?” he asked.

  “No. You can’t,” I said.

  “Oh come on.” he pleaded.

  “You haven’t got a license!”

  “It’s weird seeing a guy on the back of a bike.”

  “I don’t care,” I told him and he rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway.

  “You know, this is cool, Friday.”

  “How so?”

  “This! We’re solving a mystery,” he said and I chuckled. “You’re like… The ‘D’ detective.”

  I paused as he wrapped his arms around me. “Why am I a ‘D’ detective?”

  “Your boobs.”

  “That’s not funny Jake.” He sighed, his head nestling in the crook of my neck.

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled against my skin.

  I shook my head and started the bike. “Maybe just, regular detective.”

  He nodded. The ride was short, Jake got off as soon as he could and trotted off to the handlers dorms, but not before giving me a goodnight hug. It was true, there was no curfew. The show would get more bang for its buck if they let the kids out in the middle of the night, but still, the term moral curfew was right; my father wouldn’t allow me out alone at ten in the evening, not in a big city, so I wandered the halls without any light, hoping no one would see me as I sneaked back to my dorm. The halls were lit only by city lights from the windows. I heard a
scuffle and a couple of groans. Maybe someone else was up? I turned a corner and smashed right into a camera crew and two students who pushed away from their make-out session.

  “Ew!” I shouted as the cameraman told me to quiet down, and the producer shoved me back.

  “Get out of here, we’re filming for next week’s episode.”

  “Ew,” I said again and jogged back down the hall, slamming right into someone’s chest, and staring straight into a flashlight. “Ow! Jeez!”

  “What the hell? Fitz, what are you doing sneaking around?” asked Ashley, looking as blank as always.

  “None of your business,” I told him. “There aren’t any rules against it.”

  “You went to see your handler friend didn’t you?”

  “No. Maybe. Shut up,” I told him.

  “Stop telling people to shut up.”

  “No.” Could I have been more dumb?

  “So you’re just going to be rude then?” he asked, settling the flashlight on my face.

  “Yes.”

  “Fine,” he said, crossing his arms.

  “Fine!” I replied, leaning forward.

  “Good.”

  “Good!” I agreed and stood on tip toe, trying to match his height.

  “Great,” he said leaning down.

  “Great!” I agreed and pushed forward ’til my nose was nearly touching his. He didn’t move.

  “Fitz.”

  “What!”

  “Stop shouting,” The same amused smile I’d seen at gym practice began to spread across his face.

  “No.” I replied.

  “I sure am surprised that you said that,” he said, smiling broadly.

  “Shut up!” I said, but it came out all wrong, probably because I was smiling too. I ducked back, my nose tickled, ready to explode. I covered it just in time with the inside of my elbow, ready to keep on talking but two more sneezes came out in quick succession.

  “Do you have a cold?” he asked.

  “I was stuck up a skyscraper in the middle of the storm. So yeah, I think so, but it’s not super bad.”

  “You need to be resting, not running around at midnight,” he scolded.

  “It’s a cold, I’m barely sick.” His large hands took me by the shoulder and started steering me towards my dorm. “What are you doing, Ang?”

  “Taking you back to your room,” he said.

  “You’re not the prefect, or the school police, ” I told him and swerving out of his loose grip, I turned to face him. “You’re not in charge of me. I can get back there myself.”

  “It’s my fault you’re sick,” he said with a sigh.

  “What? No it isn’t.”

  “I pushed you back into Mary’s power, that’s why you ended up there. So please,” he said, leaning down, only inches away in the torchlight, “let me walk you back.” I pursed my lips and thought it over, I could see him resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

  “Don’t make me carry you.” Like he would. Wait, he wouldn’t, right?

  “Fine,” I snapped.

  “Fine,” he replied. We walked down the hall side by side. I opened the door, and he strode right in, judging the walls, and furniture as though it were a museum.

  “What? Is your place that different?”

  “It’s a lot more… expensive.”

  “Well, I think this was the last dorm house they had.”

  “I didn’t mean that as an insult; I like your place better than mine. It’s not intimidating like the gold team’s.”

  I moved into the center of the room, and held my arms up, as though to show I was fine. “I’m here, you can go now.”

  “Do you have any chicken stock?”

  “What? No!” I told him, “this is the bit where you leave.”

  “Have you had dinner?”

  My lips pursed together, and my eyes rolled round the room. I’d had a sandwich but nothing else. “No.”

  “Then I’ll make you soup,” he told me, “and then send you off to bed.”

  “I’m not your daughter,” I said, not sure how to react.

  “I didn’t say you were. Sit down, and I’ll make you some supper,” Ashley said.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes! As I said, it’s my fault you ended up in the middle of a storm.”

  He looked down at me, and I could see the regret in his eyes. I bit the inside of my check and hummed in agreement. “If you’re going to do that, let me take a look at your watch while you cook.” Confused for a moment, Ashley remembered the conversation we’d had when we first met and unbuckled his watch, handing it to me before pulling out the pots, pans and kitchen utensils he needed. I ran into my room and dropped the watch onto my desk before pulling out my set of watch tools, unscrewing the back and placing each nano machine sized screw in a careful line. It was just as I’d thought; the hairspring had become so coiled up, it overlapped itself. I prodded it back into place, the thin piece of metal loosened and I screwed the back on. By the time I’d put my tools away and returned to the living room, Ashley was pouring warm soup into a bowl.

  “Fixed it,” I said as we exchanged objects.

  I hadn’t realized until then, but no one had cooked for me in years, not since we’d had to let my sister’s Nanny go, and even so, it was a job, not something they did for me, personally. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop even the smallest tear.

  “Eat it all, don’t let it get cold, and then go straight to bed, you’ll probably be all better in the morning.”

  I nodded and he nodded back, looked the room up and down as though he was inspecting for structural weaknesses, checked me once more, and left without a word while I sipped the soup. It was good. Really good. He was weird. But nice. Well, not really nice, superficially nice. I carried the soup into my room, gripped the syringe tight in my fist and stored it nice and safe under a floor board, the same way I hid things back home. Just in case.

  ✰✰✰

  For the next couple of days, I checked reports of fires, and strange sightings, looking for another syringe, but had no luck. The anger and frustration that vibrated through me, grew worse and worse every time I lay down at night, with nothing new to add to my ‘investigation’.

  A few days later Lisa shook me out of bed with a camera crew behind her, telling me I was coming with her on patrol for my weekend superhero schooling. For a moment I considered saying ‘no’, but my schooling was still important, and training to be a superhero was doing something. So I got up. Lisa dragged me out of my room, shoving my phone and ear bud into my hand. Jake yawned into my ear, and then into my face as he joined us in the elevator.

  “Hey ‘Day,” he said.

  “Hey, what time is it?” I asked.

  “Eight.” I groaned, but it wasn’t early enough for me to complain. Lisa pushed us out in a single file line. Apparently she wasn’t one for skipping the mall at the bottom of the building. I’d been at Hero High for over a month, but I hadn’t been down there since my first day, although if I kept getting the same lousy allowance, I’d have to get a job as a café server to pay for life at the school as well as back home. Lisa charged through the crowds of people buying mugs, book marks, and weird towels with our faces on them.

  Jake was in utter awe as he looked at the shops. One of the giant three story high banners hanging from a higher floor had changed. It was now a huge mishmash of all the new students, and right in the back was my giant face. Well, giant in comparison to my actual size, but small compared to everyone else on the banner. The picture of me was set next to no one in particular, and it looked as though they’d decided that my best picture was the one where I’d glared at the photographer as he tried to get me to smile. Jake stopped dead in his tracks in front of the year one store.

  “‘Day!” Jake was pointing straight at the key ring rack. He ran in, and Lisa and I had little choice. We followed. “It’s you!” he said, staring down at the plastic key chain in his hand.

  One rectangle had my
picture on the front along with my name, and a similar plastic square had my team color. A small piece of paper wrapped its self around the ring and showed the price; eight dollars. I squinted at it, the price seemed a little high for a key ring. Not to mention I wasn’t sure how much money I was getting for this, though considering my popularity, I was probably getting next to nothing.

  A few of the other students had been pulled out of class in the past few weeks to have photographs taken for what everyone thought was more merchandise. Which now, I could see was true. Aya had a pillow of herself smiling sweetly, she looked like a tween idol. David had signed pictures of himself with his visor on, though the moment I rubbed my finger over the supposed ink, I could tell it was printed on, David never actually signed them. I wondered if he knew? On the wall above those was a poster of sorts, it said ‘First Year Gold Team Photobook, Coming Soon’. Despite the fact that Ashley was the captain’s mentee, he only had one more piece of merch more than me. As Jake noticed, his brow furrowed.

  “Come on kids, we haven’t got all day.” We both hurried after Lisa, and no one in the crowd really noticed that we were on the show that they were so adamant about. The sun was hot and, I almost, almost regretted wearing my letterman jacket.

  “This way,” said Lisa, leading the way, but all Jake and I could do was stare in awe at the skyscrapers. I couldn’t decide what I liked most about Icon City; was it the rain, the misty mornings, vibrant nighttimes, or the blazing hot days?

  Lisa knocked on the side of another two story bus, with the names, Sense and Barney taped to the outside. I was glad to get out from under the heat of the sun, and into the cool interior. The inside wasn’t as nice as Captain Fantastic’s bus had been, but it was still pretty great.

  The team in Lisa’s bus was considerably smaller, the captain had at least three handlers for various different jobs, Lisa had only one, and he seemed to be ignoring us completely. I only noticed her new partner Barney when I saw the sharp expression on Lisa’s face. Barney was even more handsome in person; he had a nose so straight it could have been sculpted out of marble.

  His eyes were sharp, and a bright crystal blue. He clearly took great pride in his hair since it seemed to be quaffed and gently curled into golden perfection. In person he wore reading glasses and they made him look a little older, more like someone’s dad than in the pictures, but most of all they made him look less intimidating.