City Without Heroes

by Tanya Lisle

  “Please tell me she’s not actually doing anything for the welcoming part,” Matt said with a smile as she left.

  “Might have to,” Penny said as she looked around the room. “There’s not a lot from grade ten around here yet. Until we get someone else to help her out, or if someone else actually stays to do it, she might be it.”

  “You know she’s going to try and cut someone if they say anything she doesn’t like, right?”

  “It’ll be a great welcome to Whitten,” Penny said, looking around at the turnout. “Should probably get this started. Indira, can you hang out for a bit after?” She walked to the front of the room before Indira had a chance to reply.

  Penny and Matt wasted no time in starting the meeting, thanking people for joining and immediately running down what the purpose of the Welcoming Committee was and what the benefits of joining would be. When a new student started at Larkdale Secondary, they would take half a day off of classes to show the new person around the school and answer any questions they might have about their schedules or anything else. They would also be in charge of facilitating any conversations necessary with the clubs that they might be interested in and generally making their transition into the school as painless as possible. In order to be a part of this program, however, they would need to maintain at least a B average in all classes.

  Indira had already heard all of this, so she was less interested in listening to Penny and Matt and much more interested in the actual crowd they drew. Some of them, as Esther had suggested, were largely here to see if they could work up the nerve to talk to one person or another who had decided to attend the meeting. Many of them were people that Penny held strange conversations with over the week who occasionally glanced around wondering how many in the room were like them. While they all seemed to know Penny, they weren’t entirely familiar with one another.

  Esther was not one of those people. She wandered to the back of the room and took a seat on the desk again, this time on Indira’s side, to listen to the speech. Indira wondered what her deal was, but didn’t pry into her head. She reminded her of some of the other kids in Iverson, the kids who were anxious to tell everyone that they had decided to be a superhero and save the world.

  But Esther was definitely not a hero. She didn’t carry herself like that. She was just confident, maybe a little cocky, and not terribly inhibited. And bored, Indira could tell. She was craving something that she couldn’t get and she was hoping that this would give it to her.

  “If you’re still interested, see Esther in the back of the room for the proper forms,” Penny said at last. “Take one and fill it out, then find one of us by the end of the week. We’ll be having meetings once a month, and otherwise we’ll get in touch if we need you for anything. If there’s no more questions, you’re free to go.”

  Indira watched the room shift and shuffle. Some people were getting up the nerve to talk to others, while some were looking down at their sheets, filling them out as they sat and waited for the commotion to settle back down. Next to them, Esther handed out pages, though she was making no secret that she was keeping an eye on Indira.

  “I need to get going,” Kyle said, his eyes shifting uncomfortably to Esther, then back to Indira. Colour bloomed in his cheeks, but his blue eyes held her grey ones. “Did you want a ride home?”

  “Not sticking around?” Esther asked.

  “We got the forms,” Indira said, getting to her feet. “See you around?”

  Indira smiled and made her exit with Kyle. Once they were walking down the hall, he seemed to relax, the colour in his face settling back into the fair tan and freckles that she was growing more fond of the more she looked at him. “I don’t know why she’s even there,” he said once they were well away from the room. “I don’t think she even goes to class half the time.”

  “I don’t know,” Indira said, smiling and still amused at how embarrassed Kyle was over Esther. “I like her. Back home we had a lot more people like her.”

  “Dad said that she’s got quite a mother. Apparently she was some villain somewhere that got put away for life, so her dad moved her here to get her away from all that stuff. Looks like she might want to pick up where her mom left off one of these days.”

  Indira narrowed her eyes at him, both because that was an awful lot of judgement that was making him less attractive, but also because something felt off about that. “How does your dad know that much about her?” she asked.

  “Her dad works for mine,” Kyle said. “My dad’s the head of the police. They’re in charge of making sure there are no heroes or villains or anything like that happening. Her dad never mentioned any of it, but last year when she got arrested-”

  “She got arrested?”

  “She got in a knife fight with some guy twice her size and nearly won, apparently,” he said, casting a distrusting look backwards. “That’s when dad pulled her files. Apparently her mom tried to take over some city or something and ended up getting life in prison, though. Maximum security where they send all the villains that do the really bad stuff, but she was never registered as having any powers herself, so they were debating putting her in a smaller one with less security. But the court wouldn’t go for it. They kept insisting she had something. The jury did, anyway.”

  “Esther or her mother?”

  “Her mother.”

  “You know an awful lot about Esther’s mother for someone who’s only heard about her from your dad. I didn’t know the cops were allowed to share that much with their families. Thought case files were supposed to be private,” she pressed.

  Kyle was embarrassed, though, and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “We also kind of went out for a week,” he admitted.

  “Esther?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did she have amazing stories about heroes and the city too?” Indira asked. She was kidding, but Kyle didn’t seem to understand that.

  He let out an exasperated noise. “My dad just hates everything to do with them, so I’m not allowed to even talk about them at home. He put up a block on the net so that I can’t look it up. Not that it stops anyone, but it’s still pretty damn annoying. And we keep getting people who’ve had them around!”

  “It’s not that interesting,” Indira assured him. “They ruined my dad’s company so many times that we had to move here so that he’d stop having to be out of work for months at a time while they rebuilt the entire lab over and over again. Which means he’s home to help rebuild any time the house got damaged in a fight…”

  “Your dad must be great at renovating.”

  “My whole family had to be,” Indira said with a smile. “So is that why they’re banned? Because your dad doesn’t like them?”

  “Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” he said. “They were already trying to enact a law to make this a hero free zone when my dad got transferred in. He managed to propose something to them to make it actually work and, well, now he’s in charge of the whole thing. I do kind of think we moved here because of it in the first place, though. That, and probably that thing about buildings getting destroyed and nowhere being really safe, I guess. Police work is pretty dangerous in hero heavy cities, right?”

  “It can be,” Indira admitted. “It’s not really all that bad, though. There’s usually someone around with something to prove somewhere who wants to be a hero. They try not to let anyone get hurt if they can.”

  Indira thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She glanced back, but saw nothing besides the specks on the wall.

  “My aunt was like that,” Kyle said. “When my dad was a teenager, there was some attack and Aunt Tess got in the way and had to stop a building from falling on everyone. She saved the street, but…”

  “But?”

  “She’s kind of a vegetable,” Kyle said. “Mom says that’s why he doesn’t like the heroes or the villains. Aunt Tess was kind of his hero and then no one managed to save her in time, so now she’s just been put into a home by the hospi
tal. She comes by sometimes on holidays, but she mostly just sits in the corner and stares out the window, you know?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Kyle shook his head and waved off her concern. “It’s fine,” he said. “She’s been like that as long as I can remember, so it’s not like I’m missing a lot. But I think, from the stories mom tells me, that she would have wanted to let me check out the hero stuff if I wanted to. I mean, how great would that be?”

  Indira caught something again out of the corner of her eye, but there was nothing. And beside her, there was a fantastic smile on top of broad shoulders with blue eyes lighting up in excitement to pay attention to instead. “Would what be?” she asked.

  “I’ve always wanted to see heroes in action,” he said. “Like, the whole idea just sounds amazing. You’re doing stuff to save people every day and not expecting anything in return, but people love you for it anyway. And you have super powers on top of it! Flying! Speed and strength! Can you imagine?”

  Indira tried to put on a smile, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something watching her. Something lingered in the corner of her vision, but there were no other people wandering the halls with them. And she didn’t want to look wildly around and make Kyle think she wasn’t paying attention.

  “Have you ever seen any heroes in person?” he asked. “Did you go to school with some teen heroes that wanted to do all of that? Or did you ever get saved by anyone before? I guess you wouldn’t know if you went to school with one, though. Secret identities are practically sacred.”

  Something. There was something watching her and it was going to bug her until she figured out what it was.

  “People aren’t that good at keeping their identities secret,” Indira told him. “Especially in high school. We’ve had so many people come to school suddenly looking like they got everything figured out and dropping hints that make it pretty obvious. The number of times someone emphasized how important it was to save everything in a computer class was just… no one is subtle about this stuff.”

  Kyle laughed and the jealousy coming off of him was good natured. “I don’t know, I think I can keep a secret. For all you know, I spend my nights in a spandex onesie trying to fight crime and I might just be looking for a partner.”

  He winked and Indira laughed. “Well, I hope you aren’t looking to recruit me,” she said. “I am definitely not the person you want for something like that. Too much having to punch people in the face and get into dangerous situations. It’s not for me.”

  “I could keep you safe,” he offered. “I couldn’t let my partner down.

  She smiled and felt the colour rise to her cheeks. His words were cheesy to a point she should have been groaning, but the look in those blue eyes and the feeling coming off of him was too endearing. As much fun as she could have with Kyle - and she knew the two of them could have a lot of fun - there was still something…

  Her eyes drifted down the hall and she caught it finally. One of the specks on the wall flashed red right in their direction for just a moment before returning to black.

  “I’m sorry, I just remembered I parked in the other lot,” she said, suddenly feeling very exposed. She remembered Penny’s warning about people disappearing for just talking about heroes. Now she had a strong suspicion that she knew how they were tracking them.

  “You want a ride to it?”

  She didn’t want to end the conversation like this, but she also didn’t want to find out what happened to people who talked about heroes. “I’m good. I’ll see you tomorrow?” She smiled and abandoned Kyle, walking as quickly as she could away from the eyes that were following her.

  Chapter 8

  Cleaning House

  Shiraz wasn’t even home to talk to. Indira desperately needed someone to talk to, but her brother had decided to go out with friends for the evening and left her to her own muddled thoughts.

  She knew she was panicking and went to her room, closing the door as her eyes scoured the walls and ceiling for black specks that might still remain. There was no reason for her to be worried about anything yet. People around her had talked a lot about what might happen, but she had yet to see anything actually happen. People talked, but that was no reason to assume something was going to happen.

  She had been told the specks were inert, though. And she was positive she had seen one flashing red.

  Originally, Indira had opted to just paint over any black speck left in the wall, but now she worked her pen into them, popping them all out one by one. She ignored the voice in the back of her head reminding her about how they were said to just grow back. The more she got them out of her room, the better she would feel.

  Part of her was sure this was an overreaction. Just because she thought she saw one flash red didn’t mean anything. Nothing was actually going to be listening into conversations for anyone who might talk about heroes. And even if they did hear a conversation, talking wasn’t illegal. Still, she didn’t like the idea that something might be listening to her and continued until she had gotten rid of everything she could find, moving the bed into the middle of the room and checking even in the inside of her closet before she finally took a breath.

  Answers. What she desperately needed to settle her mind was answers. She could comfort herself with the knowledge that nothing bad was going to happen to them any time soon, at least. If it was, her mother would have seen it and warned them. If any one of them were going to die, Shiraz would know. She was worried about nothing.

  Still, she tossed the cup full of the black specks out the window. If nothing else, they wouldn’t be watching her sleep. Or doing anything else.

  Indira climbed up onto her bed and grabbed a brush, unravelling the long braid that tumbled behind her and starting to detangle it. Her hands moved mechanically and she relaxed into the motion, her body occupied with a task so her mind could focus on other things.

  Uncle Ness’ warning echoed in her mind again, warning them to keep a low profile with that unspoken addition to not use their powers at all if they could help it, but Indira had actively used them considerably more in the last week than she had in the year previous. She might as well see how out of practice she was with her other skills as well.

  Indira’s mind was never what anyone would call quiet. She always left the proverbial windows open a crack to let the psychic static in, just enough so she could read the situation and know if it was a good idea to linger, or if she should excuse herself from any given situation. Now, she threw those windows wide open along with the doors, letting the unguarded thoughts from anyone in range flood in.

  While Indira wanted answers, she knew this wasn’t the way to get them. There was just too much out there for her to sift through to find anything useful. Instead, she wanted to know what the city felt, and if they knew that they were being watched.

  It didn’t take long for Indira to learn that they did not. The city of Whitten was fairly mundane compared to Iverson, most of them more concerned about going about their lives and minding their own business than they were about what the specks might be doing. There was much more confusion here, and a sense that something was missing in their generally dull lives compared to the rest of the country, but the general consensus was that people were happier for it.

  And if the rest of the city was fine with it, then why should she be concerned?

  With that in mind, Indira let her mind wander out further through the thoughts, pushing at the edges of her psychic reach to see just how far she could go. It had been a very long time since she had tried, but her reach still extended fairly far, capturing many minds in her net. If she pushed it, she could feel half the city in her range.

  Indira’s ears caught a noise and she pulled herself back, her hair now well brushed and the sound of her mother kicking off her heels echoing off the tile entry way. Her fingers tingled, but she still got up and went to the stairs, finding that it was only her mother who had walked through the door. “No Dad?”


  “He’s going out with his office,” her mother said, making her way upstairs. “I’m going to get changed and join him. Are you okay to find your own dinner?”

  “Yeah,” Indira said. “Where are they going?”

  “Some place called Num? The girls at work like it. Thai food.”

  Indira nodded, though she had never heard of the place before. Her mind was elsewhere, and her eyes caught sight of a tiny bit of black on the grey walls of the hall. “Hey mom?” she asked. “Nothing’s going to happen, right? This place is safe?”

  Her mother stopped at the door to the master bedroom and turned back, eyes narrowed and disapproval across her face. “Have you been talking to your uncle?” she asked, her tone balancing on the edge of a demand. “He is convinced that there’s something sinister happening here.”

  “Isn’t it kinda weird, though?” she pressed. “Even with the law, there should be more people around with powers, shouldn’t there?”

  “Whitten just isn’t that sort of place,” her mother assured her curtly. “And no, there’s nothing foreboding coming up. Your uncle is going to get himself in some trouble and disappear soon, but that’s hardly unusual for Ness. And my dear children are going to stop trying to find things unusual with this place and learn to love not having to rebuild the house every year.”

  She held Indira’s eyes for a long moment before nodding and heading into her room. Indira stared at the door, letting out a breath and shaking her head. She looked around to the walls, finding nothing red watching her, and headed down to the kitchen.

  Answers. She wanted to know what was going on around here, and without Shiraz to bounce ideas off of and her mother very firmly against hearing anything against this place, she was going to have to see if any of her other old tricks would be of any use to her. She knew she could wait for Shiraz to get back, to see if he had any ideas, but there were other ways to get the information she was looking for. Ways that she knew would never get her caught.