by Chara, Mina
“It’s Short Fuse!” Jake’s voice chimed in, cutting Carey off.
“I’m looking at his file now. His power’s called explosive excretion. Apparently it means he sweats explosives?”
“Sounds fun.”
Carey cut in again to deliver the rest of his speech. “Short Fuse is back, and is ready to have a blast. And remember folks, when he sweats, you sweat!”
How in the hell was I supposed to beat a guy made of explosives? Maybe the trick was not to think of him as a walking bomb, but just as someone seriously sweaty? Dry shampoo always soaks up sweat… He can’t force himself to sweat can he?
“Help me!” the woman yelled.
Aya ran forwards as Short Fuse raised his hand, his skin excreting explosive as his sweat solidified into off white putty. David touched the edge of his visor, forcing a tiny pang of pain into Short Fuses hand, making him drop the gob of explosive, as Aya plain old kicked him in the face.
Ashley nodded to the others and began to run around Short Fuse, distracting him from the rest of the team. Short Fuse lobbed a ball of explosive but it fizzled and popped well before reading Ashley, doing little more than making a scary noise.
I twitched in place, stopped only by a lack of understanding of what I could do to help. Aya ran in again, Short Fuse pressed the off-white substance to the woman’s head, and stepped back. I heard Veronica shout something on my communicator, but she must have been far away, I couldn’t make out a word.
“One step further and she gets it! How you gonna get out of this one kids?”
Aya stumbled backwards, and David lowered his hand. I had to be a part of the team I had to help…
“Jakey, what can you tell me about his power?” I whispered. The flutter of pages and desk ornaments filled my ear, until he cleared his throat.
“He’s been a villain for nearly ten years, hates his name, can detonate his explosives remotely… He uh, can’t produce sweat at will, he has to build up to it.”
“What are his explosives actually made of?”
“Let me see.” There was another ruffling of pages, and then a slam of his finger. “It says the white stuff most closely resembles C3.”
I had to do something, so I did the only thing I could, I blinked just as Short Fuse lunged forwards, and everything suspended as my mind worked in super speed. I wasn’t strong, I couldn’t fly, but I could think. So think Friday, think. I knew a little about C3. A few years back I made a blueprint for a military grade water canister, the man who bought it had told me some interesting stories over lunch, including the fact that C3 had been replaced by C4 in the 60’s because the cold made C3 unusable. If I could have moved my hands, I would’ve snapped my fingers in triumph. I knew the powers I had at my disposal, Aya’s, David’s, and Ashley’s. Ashley and Aya weren’t helpful right now, but the great thing about David’s power? He could transfer heat, and even though Veronica liked to limit him to blowing things up, his power could actually go hot or cold. I ran through the scenarios in my head, and settled on one I liked before returning to the regular motion of the world.
“David!” Short Fuse’s head turned, but he didn’t panic. I lifted my cola can, still mostly ice, and nodded to David to trust me. He understood completely as he whipped off his visor and Short Fuse looked on confused.
“What are you gonna do, don’t you make things explode?” the villain asked.
“Now David!” David looked at my can, closed his eyes, and opened them again looking directly at the batch of C3 on the woman’s head. It frosted over and cracked. Short Fuse snapped his fingers like they were a lighter, but nothing happened. I stood straight backed, and finally relaxed.
“What did you do?” Short Fuse asked.
“Your explosive is similar to C3,” I told him. “C3 goes brittle and useless if cold.”
Short Fuse started yelling at the top of his lungs, Ashley rushed forwards, using his strength to force Short Fuse to the ground and bringing out small areas of heat all over his body like pins and needles as Aya appeared behind him, and cuffed him for good. David took the honors of picking the hostage up, and wiping the C3 off her shoulder. I ran to the other side of Short Fuse to help Aya keep him in line and that was when I saw something small and brown deep in his ear. Ear buds! Why would he need an earbud? It looked just like the ones I’d seen before, which meant the earbuds belonged to us., in which case- as Aya and I dragged him to the doors of the building, I realized Short Fuse was an employee of the Hero Channel.
I slammed my communicator down on Jake’s table and turned to face Veronica.
“What?” she said, looking confused. “What did I do?”
“He’s an actor!” I said pointing to Short Fuse as the others followed me in. “Is he even going to Jail right now?”
“If you must know, no. We have a few ‘villains’ on retainer for when the weather’s good and all the heroes we want are available for shooting.”
Aya cringed at my side and David shook his head. “What the hell! That’s not okay, I thought that woman was going to die!”
“Well of course not, I’d never do that. She was an actor too?”
“You don’t seem to get it, ” I said, storming closer. Every eye on the bus turned to look at us. “I heard you shouting at him when he held her at gun point.”
Veronica’s face darkened. “I hadn’t foreseen that.”
“Bullshit! You explicitly told him not to do it, that is why you were shouting wasn’t it!?” I turned round to the line of handlers. “Wasn’t it!?” One in the corner, younger than the others nodded sheepishly.
“You can’t do this!” I said turning back, throwing my armor off, smashing into the sides of the bus. Ashley leaned against the walls, watching it all play out.
“You think it’s better to have real super villains?” Veronica bit back.
“He’s not that far off, after all, he did go off script!”
“I’ll handle it,” she said. “He won’t do it again.”
“How can you stand there like you’re better than us!” I yelled. “All you are is fake!”
“At least I’m not dressed like a man,” said Veronica giving me a condescending look, her teeth grinding against each other. “Your mother must be so proud.”
“How dare you say anything about my mother!” I grabbed her collar like she’d killed my mother. That was a low blow.
“Little baby gonna cry because she’s got no mommy-”
Before she could finish I swung at her with my fist but before it could impact her smug face, Aya tugged me back, and everyone in the bus leapt up. “What the hell was that! You’re this close to being off this team! You violent little girl.”
“I’m not violent!” I screamed. Everyone around me froze, and my lunch rose in my stomach.
“Let it go, Friday,” whispered Aya, “she’s in the wrong, but so are you if you hit her.” I knew she was right, the anger had already made me feel sick. I nodded, and she let me go.
“I was gonna go along with it, the whole fake super villain thing, until I realized we could have been doing something actually useful. That’s why I’m angry, Veronica.”
Veronica pressed her finger into my chest, and loomed over me. “You don’t get it, do you, little girl? You’re an actor on a TV show that pays for my house, my car, and my clothes. The one thing you are not, is a hero.”
✰✰✰
Jake went back to the Super Structure without a word to me and the rest of the day was spent doing odd jobs, and having Coach Flat help us improve the way we fought, or the way we used our gadgets; gadgets that Lisa had apparently ordered me not to have. She thought having less fancy equipment would build character.
The day ended late, at the point where we’d all passed being hungry, and decided that we’d just skip dinner. There wasn’t enough energy in any of us to cook, and none of our teachers would ever buy heroes in training fast food, we might be seen eating it. Veronica kicked us out of the van and told us the working da
y was over. Coach Flat agreed and told us to walk home, he said it would be good exercise, as though the exercise we’d already had wasn’t enough. I stowed my bike away in the parking lot basement with Ashley. Jake hadn’t texted me since I’d told him it was going to be a long night. I figured he was mad that we hadn’t been spending much time together and that was fine, I’d make it up to him, carve out more time, whatever it took. I wasn’t willing to lose a friend, not now. I flipped open my phone hoping to find a message from him, but the screen was blank.
“What are you doing? Looking for more work?” Ashley asked looking over my shoulder as we stepped into the elevator.
“Checking to see if Jake’s sent me anything.” Ashley scoffed.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” I asked putting away my phone.
“No, no.”
“I’m not great at reading people, so if there’s something wrong?” I said, raising my voice slightly.
“No. I’m fine.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
I sighed, and leaned against the walls.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I replied, looking up.
He stood at the other side, looking me up and down with concern. “What I mean is, are you still angry?”
My eyes dropped to the floor. “I’m always angry.”
The doors of the elevator opened, and we stepped out into the courtyard of houses. I could see the twinkle of the red light from one of the cameras embedded in the ceiling. There was no doubt in my mind the freshman gold team would be featured on the new episode, at least briefly. The other teams were still much more popular, they could fill entire episodes by themselves. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch any of the episodes I was in any more. It always felt so strange and it struck me how strange it was to come home with someone who wasn’t Jake. Standing next to Ashley as I put the key in the lock of my front door was odd to say the least. It felt like we were coming home after a long days work which, I supposed, we were.
An odd pulsing sound came from the walls and I heard calls from inside. I fumbled with the key worried something had gone wrong and Ashley pushed the door open sensing the same thing. Inside we were greeted with loud music and swaying students. Aya and David stood in front of us, mortified. I heard a crash of something in the hallway, but no one stopped dancing. I pushed through the people, catching sight of faces I knew from class. We hadn’t invited them, so who had!? A family heirloom of Aya’s lay smashed to smithereens on the living room floor, but no one seemed to care in the slightest. I pushed further through the people, snatching away vases, glasses and other small ornaments until I got to my room. Figures moved behind the glass of my bedroom door. I couldn’t believe someone was in there! In my room! Gross!
I swung the door open, already deciding which new sheets to buy, and walked straight in on Jake and Mary Mayberry. He turned his head mid kiss, his hand half way up her shirt. For a second I was frozen in place, but Ashley came up behind me and that jolted me back.
“‘Day what are you doing!?” Jake shouted, reaching for his shirt.
“What are you doing!? This is my room, this is my dorm! Who said you could throw some sort of a bash?”
Jake pushed Mary aside, pulled his shirt on and pushed us out of the room, closing the door behind him. Aya, David, and Ashley all stood behind me, trying not to interfere.
“Come on ‘Day this is my place too,” he said over the pounding music.
“It is not!” I yelled, “you have your own dorm!”
“So I’m not allowed to come here!?”
“Of course you are!”
“Then what’s the problem!?”
“That doesn’t apply to my bedroom.”
He shook his head, and probed his cheek with his tongue. “Look. just be honest, okay?”
“About what?” I asked, “how pissed I am right now?”
“You’re jealous!”
“You’ve gone insane,” I said. I was ready to slap him.
“Come on, ‘Day! You and I have always had a thing going on,” he said gesturing between us, “but you’re just not my type, okay?”
My hands twitched at my side. Hold it together, hold it together. I stormed through the crowds, kicked over the speakers, pulled out the plugs and brought a screeching halt to what Jake called ‘music’.
“You’re such a bitch,” said Jake, stomping towards me, “that was expensive.”
“I’m a bitch!? Look at yourself! No! You know what! You don’t even get to say bitch! Bitches are wonderful loyal female dogs! Get bent!”
“Here we go!” Jake yelled back. “You’ve been after me for years, ‘Day, You even kissed me! Just admit it!”
“I was!”
His face froze, and for a moment, he said nothing. Then a self satisfied smile erupted onto his face. “I knew it!” He lunged to take my face in his hands, like he was ready to take back everything about not being his type. I stepped out of the way and he nearly stumbled into the wall.
“But not anymore, Jake,” I said sadly. My anger was gone and had been replaced by melancholy. “I used to think you were the best. You were funny, cute, I loved being around you. But, we’re seventeen now! We have responsibilities, I grew up, and you got - worse.”
He clenched his jaw, and bared his teeth at me.
“We’re nearly adults,” I told him, “act like it. You’re not a kid anymore. I’m sorry I got powers and you didn’t! I am! I’m so sorry! It’s not fair, but you can’t hate me for it.”
“I’m not your sidekick!” he yelled.
“I didn’t say you were! Super Powers don’t make heroes, villains are proof of that. Your chance isn’t gone just because I got to be one too! You don’t need powers to be a hero! ” He took a few steps forward and I realized how much bigger and stronger than me he was. The crowd moved back, and for the very first time, I was scared of him. I was scared of my best friend. He poked me hard in the middle of the chest, and bared his teeth like a dog.
“You weren’t supposed to get powers! I was supposed to be the superhero!”
“You still can be!” I must have screamed at the very top of my lungs because everyone took another step back. His eyes seemed to soften, and his hand lowered along with his head. “Jake?” A fist still lay at his side, taut and ready. My gut clenched. “Jake?” His fist grew red, and I fought the urge to step back. I wasn’t going to be scared of my best friend. “Jake please. Talk to me.” He pushed at my shoulders, rushing through the crowd of people, slamming the door behind him. Ashley tried to reach for my hand, but I just rushed through the crowds after Jake. “Jake!”
He turned each corner as fast as he could. “Stop following me!”
I pulled back at the sting of the cold night air, but chased after him all the same. “Come back,” I yelled, “we have to work this out!” I’d lost sight of him, but ran down the street all the same.
“I hate you!” I heard his shout from behind me and turned round, too late.
My head slammed against the street, something in me cracked and splintered. I looked up and he lifted his leg to kick me. Wait. Had Jake just punched me? I blinked. I was left with the option of block or dodge?If I dodged I’d still have to get back on my feet. If I somehow managed to block, I could counter. Block was the best option, so I took the risk and blinked back in. My two hands rose up in tandem to cover the tip of his toes. Jake wasn’t a guy who knew how to fight, if he did, he would have used his heel. My hands rose up, and before he knew it I’d gripped his high tops, and pulled. His standing leg wobbled and Jake toppled over, groaning in pain as his head hit the floor. Wait a minute. Was there blood in my mouth?
“Bitch!” he yelled pushing himself back up.
“You’re calling me a bitch? You punched me!”
“You were asking for it,” he growled. His knee came smashing into the side of my leg as he climbed over me, and for a moment I had no idea where I was, or what was hap
pening. Then, I felt his fist come down on my face.
I blinked again. That was a black eye for sure. My best friend had given me a black eye. How dare he! All I could think about was beating him to a pulp. The image frozen above me was an obvious one to counter. Knee him in the groin. But then what? I blinked, and he yelled in pain as my heel connected, but he didn’t move his hands from my side. I blinked again. I had to stun him for longer. I thought back to a move my dad had taught me. A punch directed at the windpipe.
I blinked, and his cries resumed. My hand extended upwards, my middle finger’s second knuckle tensing as it collided with his Adam’s apple. He made a harsh choking sound and toppled off me, grabbing my ankle like a hand extending from the grave. My black eye started to go blurry, and panic overtook me. I leaned down and forgot all about well thought out technique, I just bit him as hard as I could. He screamed this time and I wasted not a moment, jetting it down the sidewalk. I thought I was free, until a fireball brushed past my head and singed a lock of my hair. Someone knocked me to the ground as fire blared above me. I looked up to see Ashley, out of breath and panicked. Jake screamed, and his body erupted into flames. I shuffled backwards, too taken aback to say a word as Jake stomped forwards. Ashley pulled me up, tugging on my arm.
“Move Fitz!”
I nodded without looking at him, and ran. Jake screamed again and the fire on his body flared. A jet came so close to me I stumbled. The vision in one of my eyes was blurry through the tears, the other was swollen. Before I knew it, Ashley was holding me up as I grabbed at my side. He ran into the elevator, setting me down on the benches, hoping the doors would close before a fireball could reach us.
“Who are you calling?” I asked, as he pulled out his phone.
He looked over, still on high alert, and dropped the phone like he’d forgotten about it as he knelt down to me. “Oh Friday, your poor eye.” His fingers reached out, but pulled back for fear of hurting me.
