This World

by Lee, TD

  “Speaking of Sadie, where is she?” I ask.

  He replies while both chewing and texting, “She saw some of her friends and went to go sit with them.” Sounds about right, Sadie doesn’t sit with us normally because she sits with other super people.

  Sadie is such a weird person to me. Almost any time Hiro talks about her, she sounds like the most angelically nice person you’ll ever meet, but she’s been nothing but rude to me. “What do you like about Sadie?” I ask Hiro.

  He briefly pauses his texting. He replies with a happy grin on his face, “Well, she’s super nice. Maybe a bit overprotective of me, but she’s absolutely doing her best to be a good girlfriend towards me. And in general, she does her best to be a good person. She’s a great listener and someone you can tell genuinely cares about the people around her. There’s a lot of passion she has in anything she does and I think that’s something that’s absolutely amazing about her. Just this undying passion no matter what it is. And she’s one hell of a cook, I swear if I didn’t exercise regularly that I would be an extreme fatty by now. Oh, and not to mention she is absolutely gorgeous.” The grin on his face grew wider and wider. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious,” I mutter. I have yet to see this really nice Sadie that Hiro’s talking about.

  “Hey Hiro, why don’t you sit with us?” a deep voice suggests. Hiro and I look up to find a trio of guys all dressed similarly to each other, but each of them have a flashy haircut. The one who just spoke to us looks a little too big to be in high school—then again so does Hiro. The guy’s dark green hair is so spiky that it looks like it’s defying gravity.

  Hiro looks up from his phone, replying, “Oh, I’m okay.”

  “Nah, come with us man,” another one of the trio speaks. This guy is thinner, but tall. He sits next to and puts his arm around Hiro. He smiles as he says, “Just a couple of heroes hanging out during lunch. It’ll be a grand old time. Hell, some of the other heroes haven’t met you yet, we should fix that!”

  “Yeah, he said he’s okay,” I chime in, annoyed. Why can’t these people take no for an answer?

  “And just who are you?” the last of the trio says, returning an annoyed look at me. Man, I thought Sadie death glares me, this guy is looking like at me as if I killed his parents.

  “Hiro’s best friend and someone he’s trying to hang out with and-”

  The friendlier guy interrupts me while giving me an annoyed look, “Oh come on Hiro, you’re not just going to hang out with a normie like this person.” The expression of the guy turns from annoyed to scheming. He eyes me briefly again before returning his look to Hiro. “Unless you think you’re too good for us.”

  Hiro’s brows furrow in confusion. His mouth gapes, frozen. “I-it’s not like that guys, I-”

  The bigger guy speaks up, “Come on, Sadie is sitting with us too. Wouldn’t want your girlfriend to think that you’re better than she is would you?”

  Hiro looks over at me. He has a disheartened expression, eyes filled with apologies. “I-I…”

  I put my hand on Hiro’s shoulder, making the decision for him, “Just go with them Hiro, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to stop pestering you unless you agree.”

  “Pester!?” the annoyed guy hisses at me. Anger fuels his body to violently posture at me. If it weren’t for the bigger guy, I probably would’ve been attacked.

  “Sorry, but I’m trying to have lunch with my best-”

  “So you do think you’re better than us,” the friendlier guy just became unfriendly. He pushes Hiro away with a ghastly expression. His hands reach for his waist. What the bullying hell? Does this guy have a weapon? Within a blink of an eye, he places a fancy knife to Hiro’s throat. In a hush, quick tone, the guy threatens, “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, you’re new so you probably don’t know how things work. But you’re a pilot, you don’t even have superpowers which means you’re lower than we are. We’re just trying to be nice.”

  Uh oh. I know Hiro. Hiro is a nice guy and all, but when provoked he’s not afraid to back down. There’s fire in his eyes, he’s ready to retaliate. I’d rather not have a fight happen during the best time during school.

  “What do you mean by a normie?” Hiro’s usual happy tone becomes one of fiery bitterness. He pushes away the knife at his throat. He sets down his tray and stands up.

  Shit, shit, shit. Hiro might actually get into a fight today. Hiro is standing up straight. While there is fire in his eyes, his body language says he’s calm. Like a caged animal, he’s angry on the inside, but ready to unleash his fury. Hiro’s not a slouch when it comes to fighting either, maybe that’s why he’s such a good pilot already. Normally, Hiro isn’t a fighter in the terms of wanting to fight. He’s willing to throw down when he needs to. The guy has even fought off a gang of thugs when they stole from a store. But I really don’t want to see this. Hiro has never gone against a super person though, this is totally out of his league!

  “Normie, normal, plain, ordinary. Boring,” the angry guy steps in, speaking with a tone that clearly matches the way he looks. What’s with this guy? Plain? Ordinary? Boring!? Sure non-super people don’t have these extraordinary powers or abilities, but that doesn’t mean we’re boring people! Yeah, it’s been years since a non-super person has been shown to do something amazing, but there are amazing people out there. I’m not one of them, but they exist!

  Hiro’s brows furrow in anger, his eyes staring with intensity. “Take that back.”

  “What?” the angry guy questions, approaching Hiro with a puffed out chest. He bumps Hiro a couple of times to which Hiro remains still, not giving to the guy.

  “Take that back,” Hiro repeats. “You make it sound like non-supers aren’t anything! Ridley here is an amazing person who doesn’t need to have be a super person to prove it! And look at me, I was a ‘normie’ as you would say who made it as a pilot. People like me can do what you can do!”

  “How about you sit down, pilot!” the angry guy yells, he reaches for something at his hip. “You realize that pilots of any kind are the lowest form of a heroes right? You guys are just lucky little bastards who can sit in a robot. Try being someone who’s actually gifted, who can actually do shit because they have the powers to. You’re nothing you damn pi-”

  I can’t help, but interrupt, “How about you back off of Hiro? Just let him do what he wants, why are you trying to make him do something he doesn’t want to? Just let him be.”

  The angry guy pierces me with an angry gaze. I can feel a million knives just stab me with this guy’s gaze. “What did you say?” He approaches me, puffing his chest out. With his body, he pushes me back. My feet trip against the stone stairs which leads me to fall hard onto the hard stone. A different fancy knife is pointed at me.

  With every word, the angry guy slowly inches his body and knife closer and closer towards me. “Listen to me normie. You’re nothing. You will never be anything. Compared to us, you are just a speck of dust in this world. And you clearly don’t know who you’re talking to. We’ve saved this city countless of times, but I bet you haven’t. So before you think that you can talk back to us, maybe you should think very carefully because you might not live.”

  “You back off,” Hiro orders sternly. He pushes the angry guy’s arm out of the way and steps in between myself and the angry guy.

  “Watch yourself!” the not-so-friendly guy chimes in pointing his knife at Hiro.

  “You’re really going to protect this normie? You don’t think I’ll go through you to get to him?” the angry guy warns. His slender fingers gently glide across his knife as he glares through Hiro.

  Hiro is unmoving. This whole thing is terrifying. Any second now, there’ll be a fight. What do I do? I can’t help Hiro because I know nothing about fighting. Plus, these guys have superpowers probably so I don’t even stand a chance. Hiro might, but probably not considering he doesn’t even have powers too. This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!

  As soon as
I think the first punch is about to get thrown, a familiar female voice cries out, “Hiro don’t!” Wind hits me as quick feet dash by me. Sadie literally lunges and holds embraces Hiro to stop him from fighting. “Please don’t fight.” She buries her head into his back as her arms hold onto Hiro tighter.

  “Sadie,” Hiro murmurs, turning his head to look at her.

  “Hiro, please just calm down okay?” her voice muffled a bit. “Just, come with us okay? Just this one time just sit with us. I promise they’ll stop.”

  Hiro’s head turns alternating his stare between me, Sadie, and the angry guys. Confusion completely takes over his face, worry fills his eyes. He completely turns around to tightly hug Sadie. “I’m sorry, but I-”

  I sigh, watching a really sad display of Hiro trying his best to fend off these monsters that are other heroes. “Go ahead and hang out with them.”

  Hiro turns his head to me, asking, “What? You sure?”

  “Yeah, just go,” I say, waving Hiro away. This is better for Hiro anyway considering his girlfriend is pleading with him and the angry guys just threatened him.

  “U-uh, okay. Talk to you later then?” Hiro says with worry. He picks up what’s left of his tray of food and looks at me apologetically as he gets dragged away by Sadie. The trio of guys slowly follow behind them.

  What in the fighting hell was that? What kind of superheroes threatens other people just because things don’t go their way? This is so weird. I feel bad for Hiro. The guy loves superheroes, but was treated like that? Just what kind of shit am I not realizing about the superhero world that something like this is a thing? It’s just so strange considering heroes are supposed to help and be nice to people, not threaten. If they considered themselves anti-heroes, I would understand, but they refer to themselves as heroes.

  Whatever, I’m just going to enjoy lunch now.

  Even during the best time of school and no matter how much I wanted to just ignore it, I couldn’t. What was wrong with those guys and them basically bullying Hiro into hanging out with them? They even went so far to talk down to me! Like what the flipping hell!? I get that normal people like me can’t really do much in the face of danger, but how conceited do you have to be to have a hero complex like that? I hope not all heroes are like that. I really hope that Hiro doesn’t become like that. Hiro did make a good point earlier. He’s still a normal guy who can pilot something and do things superpower people can. If anything, Hiro is more of a hero because he has more of the skill and heart to do that kind of stuff. Man, do I just respect Hiro a lot more now.

  When lunch ends I head back to class. Hiro enters hand-in-and with Sadie, they look pretty happy considering what just happened at lunch. Before Hiro takes his seat, he briefly looks at me and mouths the words, “I’m so sorry.” He probably feels really bad about what happened at lunch. If he doesn’t have to immediately go to the facility, I’ll talk to him. My eyes briefly look over at Sadie who quickly looks away. Was she looking at me?

  In the middle of class, the ground trembles violently. Earthquake? I fall off my chair only to have it and my desk crash onto me. Some of the ceiling panels fall too. Students are screaming, things are falling, and no one knows what the shaking hell is happening! As soon as the shaking stops all of the students groan in pain. I’ve lost a bit of momentum, I’m dizzy, and –is the earthquake still happening? Everything is still moving.

  Announced loudly not just within the classroom, but also outside in the city, is a booming voice in a state of urgency, “Omega level threat! I repeat, Omega level threat! Heroes, you are called to service. All civilians please find shelter inside a building. We will now initiate Safety Mode.”

  All of the heroes in class, including Hiro and Sadie dash out of the doors. An Omega level threat, huh? It’s been a while. An Omega level threat means that there’s some catastrophic thing happening outside that needs the deployment of all heroes to tackle it. Most of these threats would be classified as world ending. The last time this happened it was a mechanical Kamizilla and a bunch of other giant monsters battling each other and raining down hell. The only reason why I actually saw some of that mayhem is because a roar woke me up from a nap.

  As the rest of the students in the class begin to reorient themselves, we all lose it again as there’s a quick drop of the floor. The whole city is going into Safety Mode. This only happens if there is an Omega threat or maybe even an Alpha threat can too. When Safety Mode is engaged, the entire city, country, or world really, is lowered into the Earth and then sealed off so the city and people won’t get harmed as much. This was implemented a couple years back after the alien invasion. Safety Mode was created as a way to protect the civilians and prevent damage to the cities. It has to be a pain to constantly fix broken structures and whatnot anyway. During Safety Mode there are plenty of live broadcasts that are being played on all TVs. All channels are overwritten to display what’s happening on the surface. During this though, life is pretty much normal. Some big event is happening, but everyone who’s not participating lives their life as normal. With that, class resumes while live footage of what’s happening outside is being played on the TV above the board.

  Class is close to finishing. I’ve been staring at the clock of my phone more than I have been anything else. The teacher is boring. Every time I took a quick glimpse of the TV all it’s showing so far is the sealed off city. I should watch the broadcasts some more because of Hiro. This is his first Omega threat that he’s dealing with. All I can hope for is that he’s going to be okay by the end of it all. Something is weird though. As I take a quick look around the class, I notice that new girl Ainia is still here. If I remember correctly, she’s a hero so why is she still here? Eh, maybe she’s stationed to stay within Safety Mode to stop villains that try to do something during times like these. It’s not the first time a villain thought to wreak havoc in the middle of Safety Mode, so I guess it’s smart to have some heroes stay with the civilians. Now that I have a closer look at Ainia though, she looks really annoyed. She’s not particularly paying attention to either the teacher or the TV, but rather she seems conflicted about something. Whatever, not my problem.

  School finally ends and I’m only of the few students that stand up to leave. Everyone else is so entranced with what’s happening on the TV to move. I’d watch to see Hiro, but what’s been shown so far are multiple interviews with some heroes as well as a prediction as to what the Omega threat is. Most of the people are saying that the threat is on a magical level, whatever that means. Among the students that left is Ainia who seems to be in a rush. She’s practically running all the way outside. I, on the other hand, just walk normally on my normal path to my normal house.

  It’s dark right now because the city is completely sealed off from the sun. There are plenty of lampposts to keep things illuminated as well as the mass amounts of TVs stationed throughout the city. People are moving about pretty normally though, almost as if it’s a relatively normal day. As I’m walking home, I pull up one of many broadcasts about the Omega threat. As soon as I do, there’s a violent shake. I lose balance a bit, but continue moving. Is the Omega threat finally happening?

  My phone tunes into a broadcast and I’m greeted by a scarily happy guy superhero with green and blue hair saying, “Hey everyone! Thanks for tuning in!” The superhero waves at the camera they’re clearly holding themselves. “So we got a big one today, this Omega level threat is what HERO and the Magical Melange Musical Maids are calling a Hag. I even have the Magical Melange Musical Maids here to tell me about them!” The superhero moves a bit to show a bunch of colorfully coordinated girls in the shot of the camera.

  One of the girls with pale blonde hair enters the frame, waves enthusiastically, and speaks with an inhumanly high pitch, “Hey everyone, hi Torpedo! Love the new hair and costume, you look quite fabulous you know!”

  Torpedo shrieks excitedly as he hugs the girl tightly. “Thank you! And hello to you too! Everyone this is Lorelai—oh, sorry—Serenade
! Me and her go way back, and look how gorgeous she is! Her hair is to die for!” He gives Lorelai a quick peck on the cheek before talking again, “Serenade is the leader of the Magical Melange Musical Maids and has identified the Omega level threat as a powerful version of a Hag.”

  “Yes, you are quite right. A Hag is normally not as grand of a scale as this one in the spotlight. But there’s always an exception to the rules, so it’s quite the sight,” Lorelai explains, all while retaining a smile. A furry creature with long ears and beady pink eyes climbs its way onto Lorelai’s shoulder. It ominously and unblinkingly stares at the camera with a complacent look on its face. In the back, I can see some of the other Musical Maids or whatever the shit they’re called waving at the camera.

  “Can you explain what a Hag is?” Torpedo asks, staring intently into the camera. It looks like he’s trying really hard to seduce any viewer that happens to be watching.

  “We’re not quite sure, but Hags are these magical beings that we as the Magical Melange Musical Maids have been fighting with more and more. Even with the hags being as powerful as they are and conceited. Especially with the power of teamwork and friendship, any foe can be defeated!” Lorelai says with a wide smile. Ugh. Just how much is this girl getting paid to say cheesy shit?

  These two are way too relaxed for an Omega threat happening right now. Since the two take so much space on the camera, I can’t exactly see what else is happening. Another tremor shakes, I almost drop my phone which honestly wouldn’t have been too horrible. Just what is happening up there?

  Torpedo looks straight into the camera and says, “The Hag is definitely coming in and-”

  I change to a different broadcaster. This Torpedo guy is spending too much time talking and showing himself. What I want to see is this Omega threat and Hiro fighting it. All I know is that it’s a Hag, whatever that means, and that it’s a magical thing, whatever that means too. More violent tremors move the ground I’m on. The tremors are so violent that I have to resort to sitting down just so I don’t fall over. While the tremors are happening, I cycle through several broadcasters before I find one that’s just simply showing the action that is already taking place.