Junior Hero Blues

by J. K. Pendragon

  “Firing range of what?” I shouted.

  “Our sources reported heavy artillery in the building’s spire,” said Captain Justice. “If they hit the jet, we’ll all go down.”

  “We have to do something,” I said, as the helicopter continued to rise so that it was almost directly above the jet. “I’ll go after them!”

  “No!” said Captain Justice. “I forbid you to go after them, Blue.”

  “I can do it! Kanaan can deflect bullets, right?”

  “They can!” yelled Captain Justice. “Doesn’t mean they always do.” He grabbed my arm. “Don’t be stupid. We’ll follow the helicopter to its destination.”

  “What if we lose them?” I shouted. “What if I never see him again?”

  “Do you think I want to be the one to explain to your parents that I let you die?” he said angrily. “Do what I say!”

  I pulled my arm away from him and jumped out the door.

  It was way higher up than I’d ever been, and I only had my stupid fall-flying to keep me from dropping down to my death, but I couldn’t think about that. I jumped up so that I was above the helicopter and then dropped, using my momentum and blasts from my feet to aim me toward the door. The pilot pulled out a gun and aimed it at me, and I almost freaked out. But then I brought my hands up and listened for the whistling of the bullet coming toward me, and deflected it with a sonic burst just in time.

  Holy crap! Talk about adrenaline. The wind was roaring in my ears, and the light was making it hard to see, but somehow I managed to dodge two more bullets and deflect a third one before landing directly on the guy, ramming myself into him and knocking his gun out the window. It took a few seconds to orient myself on the floor of the helicopter, and then the Raven was lunging at me, grappling with me the best she could in the confined space.

  I took a moment to reflect on how Captain Justice was right, that I should have spent more time in the League gym training in hand-to-hand combat. But it was too late for that. The Raven wasn’t pulling punches, smashing me hard in the kneecap, and then another in the stomach, all with a look of cold fury in her eyes that I didn’t recognize at all. I saw stars, and she grabbed me by my neck, raising me up and forming a fist to knock me into tomorrow.

  Then a metal pole smashed into the side of her head and she fell, her fingers slipping from my neck. Vanessa dropped the pole and stared at me, her eyes wide. For a second I thought it was all over, and then Martha attacked.

  I probably would have been in a better position to fight her if I hadn’t just gotten the snot kicked out of me by Ivana. For some reason the Hound lunging at me, screeching, her eyes all black and hollow, and her clawlike nails scratching at me made me want to just curl up into a ball and let her rip me to shreds. And then Rick leaped at her, scrabbling at her floral dress and wrapping his arms around her middle. She grabbed me though, her claws digging into the skin of my neck and her fingers like vise grips on my ears, and when Rick attempted to drag her off me, she pulled me after her, and then we were both flying out the side of the helicopter and falling.

  I couldn’t tell which way was up. The Hound’s hands were on my ears, her big black eyes right in front of mine, and for a second I felt her dig into my head, making me forget everything, my powers, my family, Rick, the League. There was just falling, and hot, blaring sun, and emptiness, and then we landed heavily on the roof of the jet. I heard a bone crack, although I didn’t know whose it was, and then the roof opened under us, and we fell again, landing on the black rubber floor.

  There was a commotion, and I blinked, my vision blurry, to see a bunch of people scrambling around Martha, and someone stabbing her with a needle that made her collapse.

  I stood and had just gotten my bearings when a huge explosion rocked the whole jet and sent me flying off my feet again. I nearly slid off the open edge of the jet, and just managed to grab hold of the side before I remembered that I wasn’t actually in danger of falling to my death. It sure felt like I was.

  The jet was heading down toward the building with the big spire. The spire itself had opened up to reveal several huge guns, which were shooting at us. Another one hit, and I decided that probably falling was going to be safer than hanging from an exploding plane, and let go accordingly.

  I jumped down to the top of the building, and looked up to see the huge black hulk of the helicopter zooming down through the air toward me. I leaped again, barely getting out of the way in time, and it crashed into the roof with a horrible metal-scraping noise, tearing up the cement and metal as it slid toward the spire and collided with the base. As I landed, someone crawled out of the side of the helicopter. At that point I could probably have recognized that figure anywhere. It was Rick. He was okay, and he had Vanessa with him.

  “Rick!” I yelled, waving at him, and then there was another horrible screeching noise, and I looked over to see the big metal weapons-of-death spire tilting, and breaking apart as it fell, the ruins of the helicopter directly in its path.

  I screamed Rick’s name and lunged forward. I went so fast that I couldn’t see where I was going, but I collided with Rick’s big rock-hard body, and wrapped my arm around Vanessa’s delicate frame too, and then we all went flying. Rick seemed to realize what was happening in midair, and he turned so that we were on top of him. His back took the full impact of the cement as we landed and skidded out of the way. Just in time too, as the spire landed, crashing down on the helicopter’s remains.

  The whole thing exploded. The hot wind whipped my face, and I turned around to protect my eyes from the light and debris.

  “Ivana!” screamed Vanessa, and my stomach dropped. Had she been in the helicopter?

  I looked back as soon as the explosion died down, searching the debris for any sign of life. There was nothing but the hot crackling of the fire and the smell of gas and burning paint.

  There was another explosion, and the building shook under us.

  “We should get out of here,” said Rick. “Come on.”

  We raced for the side of the building and looked down to see total chaos. The League jet had crashed into the base of the building next to us, leaving a giant swath of destruction in its wake, and a huge battle was going on. I mean serious. Captain Justice was fighting with some guy with fires for hands, and Lady Deathquake was taking on a whole group of gunmen by herself.

  “Oh no,” said Vanessa. “Look.”

  She was pointing at the wreckage of the jet. If I squinted, I could just make out two figures. A man in a suit, and a little old woman—the Hound. She looked half-conscious, and the man was dragging her away from the fighting toward a black car.

  “Javi,” said Rick, his voice raspy, “if she gets away—”

  I jumped off the building, and Rick started down the side with Vanessa on his back. He was pretty fast at running down the wall, but I was faster. I’d never done so much falling in my life, and I wasn’t getting any fonder of it. I stopped myself just before hitting the ground, managing to only make a small crater this time, and bounded away toward the wreckage.

  An unfortunate side effect of my powers is the noises I give off, and the man in the suit must have heard me coming from a mile away. When he turned, I recognized him as Williams, and a whole new level of rage surged up through me. Before I could properly channel that rage though, he pulled out a gun and shot at me.

  I dodged, barely, deflecting the bullet but having to shoot myself off in the opposite direction in the process. I hit the side of the jet and fell to the ground, my head swimming. When I finally pulled myself up, there was no time to do anything besides watch as Williams slammed the car door and got into the front seat. I ran forward, but the car was already starting up, wheels screeching as it sped away from the battle.

  Then something dark lunged in front of it, and the car hit it with a horrible crash. It’s back wheels lifted up and the front fender wrapped around the obstacle.

  I thought I heard Vanessa scream, but I wasn’t thinking properly. I ran
forward on foot, forgetting all about my powers, and shouted something unintelligible as Williams stepped out of the car, shutting the door behind him and walking around to the mutilated front. The wind picked up, and the smoke blew away a little to reveal Rick, his knees bent and his shoulder wedged into the front of the car. Williams grabbed him and yanked him forward, and Rick fell to his knees.

  “Failed experiment.” Williams aimed the gun at Rick’s head.

  “No!”

  The gun went off, but the shot flew wide as Vanessa attached herself to Williams, yanking his head back and gouging at his eyes with her fingernails. Her eyes were black, and Williams’s widened, full of horror, as if Vanessa was projecting some terrible image into his head. She wrestled the gun from him, and let him drop to the ground, where he cowered as she pointed the gun at his head.

  “Vanessa,” said Rick from where he’d fallen. “Stop.”

  “Yes, Vanessa,” said a voice. “Stop.”

  It was the Hound. She had opened the car door, and had inched her way out from behind the deployed air bag. Rick’s head whipped up, and he stared at her, his eyes glazing over.

  “Rick!” I shouted.

  Rick’s eyes jumped to me. “Javier,” he said slowly, reaching his hand up to touch the bloody mess that was his arm. “It hurts.”

  “Only for now,” said the Hound sweetly. “Come to me, Rick. I’ll make the pain go away.”

  “Don’t touch him,” spat Vanessa.

  The Hound smiled at her. “You should know, my dear. I don’t have to. Rick,” she said again, her voice honeysuckle sweet. “Get rid of these nuisances, will you? Let’s go away.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Vanessa’s hands shook as they held the gun to Williams’s head. “Rick.”

  “I . . .” Rick’s eyes darted between her and the Hound. He seemed confused. I wanted desperately to go to him, but the Hound was in front of him, and I was afraid she would make him do something terrible if I did.

  Then Williams moved, pulling a knife from his shoe and swiping at Vanessa’s legs. Vanessa screamed and shot the gun, and for a moment I could swear time slowed down as the bullet raced toward his head. Then time stopped altogether, and Williams disappeared. When things went back to normal, it took me a moment to realize what had happened. Captain Justice, of course. He had Williams, cuffing his hands behind his back, and he was standing between the Hound and Rick.

  “Blue,” said Captain Justice. “Don’t come any closer.”

  But it was too late. I’d already run toward them, and the Hound had turned to me, her eyes big and black and stretching across her face like she was a demon straight out of hell. She latched her fingers onto my face, and I swear she reached into my head and tore at every shred of confidence and happiness I’d ever felt, as if she could rip it right out of my skull. I was probably screaming, but I couldn’t hear anything. And then, strangely, everything went purple.

  The Hound’s face was frozen in that horrible expression, her mouth wide, but then her claws slowly unhinged from my face, and she started to rise into the air. I gaped as she rose, higher and higher, her entire figure enclosed in a purple glow. Then the glow disappeared, and she dropped onto the rubble with a hideous cracking noise.

  “That,” said a voice with a familiar, razor-sharp accent, “was for my brother.”

  “He should have let me kill Williams,” said Vanessa bitterly.

  I sighed, and leaned my head against her. “You’d have regretted it.”

  We were waiting outside the League hospital wing, where we’d been for the last four hours, to hear of any news about Rick and Ivana. Ivana had managed to teleport out of the exploding helicopter, but had still been caught in the blast and sustained some pretty serious injuries. And Rick had, well, been hit by a car. Among other things. I was exhausted, and I wanted nothing more than to sleep, but Rick’s parents were here too, looking pretty worse for wear, and damned if I was going to let them keep him away from me this time.

  “I guess,” said Vanessa noncommittally.

  I looked up at her, worried, and she pulled a face at me.

  “I’m kidding.” She softened. “I don’t really want to kill many more people if I can help it.”

  I snorted. It really wasn’t funny, but I was overtired, and worried, and probably not in my right mind. “I suppose that’s all we can hope for.”

  The door opened, and Kendall sneaked back in, holding three paper cups of coffee. Vanessa and I took them gratefully.

  “Any news?” asked Kendall, and I shook my head. “Your parents said they can come down and wait with you if you want.”

  “It’s okay.” I sipped my coffee. “How’s things on the outside?”

  Kendall shrugged. “Not much to report. I mean, there is, judging by the amount of reporters outside, but you know.” She rolled her eyes. “They’re calling it a ‘decisive victory.’ The Organization is history. Apparently.”

  “Right,” I said. “Well, that’ll be good for public opinion. Captain Justice’ll be happy.”

  As if on cue, the hospital doors slid open, and Captain Justice stepped out. He was still wearing his battle outfit, and his hair was all messy and sweaty from the fight, and if I hadn’t been so worried about Rick, I probably would have, um, you know, noticed. As it was, I was only concerned about one thing.

  Rick’s mom beat me to it. “Is Rick going to be all right?”

  Captain Justice nodded. “He’s got some pretty bad injuries, but he should have a full recovery.”

  “And Ivana?” asked Vanessa, and he nodded as well.

  “Third-degree burns, and some mental scarring, according to Chelsea.” He glanced back. “But, well, it’s Ivana. She’s had worse.”

  “Can we go and see Rick?” Rick’s mom once again beat me to the punch, but Captain Justice shook his head.

  “He’s resting right now, no visitors, under strict orders from the doctor.”

  “What?” said his mom angrily, and his father stepped forward. I could tell they were about to freak out at the captain, and they would probably eventually get their way, and well, I just didn’t want to hear it. Obviously I wasn’t going to get to see Rick again, not for ages. I turned to leave.

  “You’ll have to speak with the doctor,” said Captain Justice to Rick’s parents, sidestepping them. “I’m just the messenger. Er, Javier, could I see you in the next room please?”

  “Uh,” I said. “Okay.”

  I followed him down the hallway and into an empty office, my stomach sinking. He closed the door and turned to me.

  “Right,” I said. “You’re going to lecture me about how I disobeyed you, and could have been killed and stuff. Go ahead.”

  Captain Justice looked surprised. “Not at all. I was just going to let you know that Rick is currently awake and alert, and they’ve left his window open so that he can get some fresh air.”

  I tilted my head at him, confused. “Okay, good?”

  “And—” Captain Justice walked over to the shiny floor-length window “—I believe this one opens too.” He wrenched it open. “Yes, there you go.”

  I stared at him, excitement rising in my chest. “Are you serious?”

  “Well,” said Captain Justice. “Suppose I ought to go and make my official statement to the press. Do you think I should change first?”

  I shook my head, my face breaking into a grin. “No, I think you look great like that.”

  “Oh good.” He gave me a little smile in return, and left.

  I stepped up to the edge of the window, taking a moment to experience the thrill of vertigo from the ground being so very far away. Then I jumped out and shot myself to the nearest open window like a rocket.

  I was pretty sure Captain Justice had been telling the truth about the doctor not wanting Rick to have any visitors, so I made sure to be as silent as possible as I dropped to the floor in the hospital room.

  Rick was lying in the bed. His arm and most of his right side were covered in banda
ges and casts, and his neck and part of his chin were shiny with burns. But his eyes lit up when he saw me, and he tried to get up.

  “Don’t.” I rushed to sit next to him. “I’m not supposed to be in here.”

  “Thought you just liked coming in through the window,” he said with a weak smile.

  A big rush of relief welled up through me, and I stood and pressed my forehead to his. “Rick,” I said, my voice breaking a little. “I was so worried about you. I just wanted to see you, and your parents were hogging you and I couldn’t—”

  “Javi.” Rick reached up with his good arm and touched my face. “I’m sorry, I should have snuck off to see you earlier. I was scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “I don’t know.” He shifted, and a little spasm of pain crossed his face. “I was worried you . . . hated me. All the bad stuff I did.”

  I kissed him, pressing my mouth to his, drinking in the feel of his lips and his warm body, and the exhilaration of him kissing me back. I kept kissing him until my back cramped and I had to straighten up a bit. “Does that alleviate your fears at all?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. A little.” Then his face went serious. “Javi, what happened? The Hound . . .”

  “They captured her,” I said. “She’s being kept somewhere where she can’t hurt anyone else.”

  “What about the other one?”

  I shook my head. “No one knows. Either he died in the helicopter crash or else he got away.”

  Rick frowned. “That’s a problem.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed and sat down. “Nothing can ever be simple, can it?”

  “No,” he said. “I guess that’s a good thing.” He gave me a big dopey smile. “At least I know how I feel about you, though.”

  “You’re on drugs,” I said, but I could feel myself smiling. My heart was going to freaking burst right there in the hospital room. Well, at least I had immediate access to medical aid.

  “Yeah.” Rick settled into the bed, looking sleepy and happy. “You should probably go before the doctor comes in.”

  “Probably,” I said, but I didn’t get up from the chair.