Red Masked Heroine

by Dee J. Stone

  “Help!” a man calls. “My kid. He’s trapped.”

  I rush over to him. “Where’s your kid?”

  The guy swallows a million times per second. “He was under in the bleachers. I told him not to go there because it’s dangerous, but he didn’t listen.” He runs a shaky hand through his blond hair. “And now I can’t find him.”

  “Which bleachers?”

  He nods toward one that’s practically engulfed in flames.

  Maddie is putting out the fire on another set of bleachers. She won’t reach this one before the thing burns completely.

  “I’ll get your son,” I tell the guy. “What’s his name?”

  “Mikey.”

  I dash to the bleachers. The flames are very tall and strong, like they’re starving for human flesh. I wave my hand to try to peek through the flames. All I see is fire. There’s no sign of the kid.

  “Mikey!” I call.

  No response. There’s no way I can get through the flames without Maddie. I can only shove them away for a second.

  “Maddie,” I call through my communication device. It’s attached to my watch. “I need you right now. A kid is trapped.”

  A second passes and she’s at my side. Together, we put out the flames. I stop them from spreading and she completely extinguishes them. When it’s all gone, I fly behind the bleachers and search for Mikey. Maddie flies off to put out more flames.

  I find the kid huddled in a corner with his face pressed to his knees.

  “Mikey.”

  He looks up, the tears pouring out of his eyes. He doesn’t seem hurt or burned. He’s coughing, though. “Where’s my daddy?” he asks.

  I hold out my hand. “He’s waiting for you. I’ll take you to him.”

  With him in my arms, I head for the exit, where his dad is waiting. “You’re Blue,” Mikey says with an awed smile. “You’re my hero.”

  “Thanks. Here’s your dad.” I lower the kid into the dad’s arms, then continue circling the place, looking for survivors and stopping the flames from spreading. They’re moving faster than Maddie can contain them, but she manages to put them all out before it reaches the exit of the field.

  Looking around, I feel a punch to my gut. The place is completely burned. This field was our school’s pride and joy. And now it’s gone. Who would do this? Why?

  Clapping comes from the exit. When I turn my head, I see the entire crowd applauding Red and me.

  “Please, don’t thank us,” I tell them. “We’re just glad everyone is okay.” I look around. “Is everyone accounted for?”

  People nod. I sigh in relief. No one died today.

  Among the group, I see my mom. She doesn’t look pissed, but worried. I know she doesn’t approve of my being a hero, but she has to understand that I had to do this. Her worried face turns into a small, proud smile.

  “Look!” Mikey points to the sky.

  Turning my head, I see Maddie in the air, thrashing around like she’s got bugs crawling all over her. I rush to her. “What’s wrong?”

  She grabs the sides of her mask. “It burns.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It burns!” She cries out, thrashing some more. I’ve got no clue what she’s saying. How could something burn her when she’s resistant to fire?

  I’m about to reach out to her, but she yanks her mask off and hurls it to the ground. A second later, it explodes into tiny pieces.

  What the heck?

  Gasps are heard all over. Everyone’s eyes are dead-locked on Maddie.

  Oh crap. Her mask is off. Her identity has been revealed.

  “Is that Maddie Randall?” a voice asks.

  “Wait a minute,” another says. “He’s been a girl all this time?”

  At once, everyone takes pictures with their phones.

  Maddie’s panicked eyes meet mine. I surge to her, grab her hand, make us invisible, and fly away from here. The damage has already been done, but we need to deal with this. To leave everyone and think.

  Oh, god. She’s been revealed. She’s no longer safe.

  “Stop,” she says once I zoom us into a park far away from the felid. “Just stop for a second.”

  I do as she says, hovering in place. Maddie lets go of my hand, dropping to the ground. I sit down next to her.

  We’re quiet. I want to say something, but I’m not sure she’d want to hear anything I have to say right now. Her identity has just been revealed. She needs to process.

  “What the hell just happened?” she asks in a low voice.

  Swallowing this brick that’s stuck in my throat, I shake my head. Can’t talk.

  “Someone put a tiny bomb in my mask, forcing me to pull it off and reveal myself to the world.”

  I swallow again. “Do you…do you think it was them?”

  She snorts. “Who else would it be? Think about it. They’ve been trying to get me, but we’re always one step ahead. Now that they know who I am, they could threaten me and blackmail me like they did to you.”

  I didn’t even think about that. Maddie’s whole family and possibly mine are at risk. Again. “We need to keep a close watch on our families.”

  She nods.

  Quiet.

  “How did that bomb get on your mask anyway?”

  She’s quiet as she thinks about it. “The field was full of people. When I was rushing to put out the fire, I knocked into many people who were running to safety. I bet one of them stuck the bomb on my mask.” She scoffs. “They timed the reveal perfectly, making sure the fires were out and that everyone had their attention on us. Bastards.”

  “Maddie, this isn’t good.”

  “Duh?”

  “I mean these people have so many resources. Who knows what else they’ll do to us? To you?” I rub my forehead. “We won’t be safe—and neither will those we care about—until they’re stopped. We need to find them and put an end to them.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  I sigh. “No clue.”

  Quiet again.

  My phone beeps. My parents are calling me. Maddie looks at it and frowns. “It’s probably all over the news now. Soon my mom will call, too.”

  And a second later, she does. Maddie frowns, shoving her phone into her pocket. She looks down at her uniform. “Guess I won’t be needing this anymore.”

  “Of course you will. Every superhero wears a uniform, even if his or her identity is revealed.”

  She turns to me. “Do you really think I can still be a hero?”

  “Why not?”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “Nothing has to change,” I continue.

  She shrugs, taking out her phone and checking the news. “Breaking news,” the news anchor says. “The Red Masked Hero is not, in fact, a hero but a heroine. Her name is Madeline Randall and she lives in Brooklyn, New York. She’s Nick McGuire, aka The Blue Masked Hero’s, girlfriend. World, we need to welcome the Red Masked Heroine.”

  She and the other anchors talk about how nice and different it’d be to have a female superhero.

  “Why do you think she pretended to be a boy?” one of the anchors asks.

  “Maybe she was afraid men wouldn’t want to be saved by her,” a male anchor says.

  A woman twists her mouth. “Do you really think that? We’re in the twenty first century, Louis.”

  The guy shrugs.

  “No,” Maddie mumbles. “I pretended to be a boy so my mom and the organization wouldn’t come after me. Now look.” Her hands fist at her sides. They’re starting to get red.

  I massage them. “It’ll be okay. We have each other and we’ll watch over each other and those we love.”

  She doesn’t look so sure. “What do you think the organization is going to do next?”

  I slouch forward. “I don’t know, but it’s going to be bad. I can feel it.”

  She nods slowly.

  Quiet yet again.

  Maddie stands. “I’m not going to hide out here lik
e some criminal. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  I stand, too. “Are you ready to face the world?”

  She watches some more of the news, scrolling through different channels. Everyone is talking about the Red Masked Heroine. Many are claiming she’ll be a good role model to young girls. Some say she can’t be as good as a guy. Seriously. I want to punch those people.

  Maddie snorts as she reads something. I look at it. “Nicole’s blog?”

  She nods. “She says that the reason The Red Masked Hero got so many people hurt is because he was really the Red Masked Heroine. She says all girls deserve an equal chance as guys, but this girl is nothing but a weak wannabe hero. She says I’ll never be the hero people want and need me to be. So I should just stop.”

  “That’s it,” I say. “Time to hack her computer and take the blog down.”

  Maddie laughs. “When she talked bad about you it’s okay, but once she talks bad about me, you want to hack her computer?”

  I shove my hands into my pockets. “Is it wrong for me to want to protect you because I love you?”

  “It’s sweet, but I can take care of myself.” She shuts her phone. “And we don’t need to hack Nicole’s blog. Let her say all these things about me. About us. It’ll just make us stronger.”

  I smile and kiss her cheek.

  “You know what I was thinking?” Maddie says. “I bet there was someone in the ocean with me that day. He or she didn’t want me to save that family. They definitely wanted to capture me.”

  My whole body fills with worry and dread. “We need to watch out.”

  She nods.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When I get home, the whole family is waiting for me in the living room. Mom and Dad are on the couch. Kaylee’s on Dad’s lap. Matt is on the recliner. As soon as I step into the room, they all sit straight.

  I’m glad and relieved that they’re all okay—that the organization didn’t get to them—but I also don’t like the looks on their faces. Especially my parents’.

  “Hi.”

  Mom’s hands go to her hips. “How could you lie to us? I asked you if you knew who the Red Masked Hero was and you said you didn’t. You lied to my face.”

  “I know and I’m sorry. We were just trying to keep Maddie’s identity hidden. It was…it was dangerous, I guess. We didn’t want her to be exposed like I was. It ruined everything. We didn’t want that to happen to her.”

  I bite back from telling them about the organization. There’s no need to freak them out. I’ll do everything I can to watch over them.

  Kaylee holds her arms over her head. “Maddie is a hero! I like Maddie. You and her are both heroes and it’s perfect!” Matt just smiles at me.

  Mom and Dad eye me carefully. “Is there something you’d like to explain to us, Nick?” Dad asks.

  “Like?”

  Mom says, “Like why do you and Maddie have powers?”

  “I have no clue. She got her powers when she was twelve and didn’t want to tell anyone about them because it was dangerous. She finally told me and…yeah.”

  They narrow their eyes, totally not believing me.

  I shrug. “We figure we might come from another planet.” Man, the lies just keep spilling out of my mouth. I feel bad, but it’s for their own protection.

  Kaylee jumps around. “Nick is an alien. Nick is an alien!”

  Mom pulls her arm, stopping her. “Not now, Kaylee. Go to your room. You, too, Matt. We need to speak with Nick alone.”

  Kaylee frowns.

  Dad says to Matt, “Take her upstairs and play with her.”

  He bends down and she leaps onto his back. “Your piggybacks are fun,” she says as he climbs the stairs. “But Nick’s are more fun because he has powers. Wee!” They vanish.

  Mom motions for me to sit. Then my parents lower themselves next to me, both with serious expressions on their faces.

  I smile to try to relieve all the stress and pressure and intensity in the room, but they don’t return it.

  “We understand why you lied to us,” Mom says. “It wasn’t your secret to tell but Maddie’s. And this was what she wanted and we need to respect that.”

  I nod.

  “We thought Red was a dangerous person, someone you shouldn’t associate yourself with,” she continues. “And I still don’t like how dangerous she can be.”

  My eyes widen. Please, please don’t tell me they want me to break up with her. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

  “But we love Maddie,” Dad says. “She’s been good to you. She helped you pick up your grades and she was wonderful the other day when she rescued that car and today when she put out the fires.”

  “Yeah, she was amazing.”

  “We trust Maddie and we trust you,” Mom says.

  I sigh in relief.

  Mom takes my hands. “I was wrong to forbid you from being a hero and I’m sorry.” She shakes her head. “Today in the field was the most terrifying day of my life—other than when Kaylee was kidnapped. When I saw you saving all those people, I realized that you were born to do this. I may not understand it, but I was proud. You are wonderful out there. Both you and Maddie.” She pushes some hair off my forehead. “Keep doing it.”

  I gape at her. “You mean, I can be Blue?”

  She holds up her finger. “On one condition. School is your first priority.”

  Dad tilts his head, lifting his eyebrow at her.

  “Okay,” she says. “Your homework is not your first priority. Saving lives is. But your homework gets done every night. Do you understand me?”

  I nod quickly. “Of course I do.”

  She pulls me into her arms. “We love you and are proud of you, but you can’t be a superhero forever. You need a future.”

  I know she’s right. “Thanks so much. You have no idea how much all of this means to me.”

  She draws back. “Being a hero is part of you. I see it now, and I’m sorry I didn’t before.”

  “It’s okay. You were just worried about me. I appreciate how much you care about me. And I appreciate everything you have done for me.”

  They smile. Dad says, “Bring Maddie over more often. We feel like we haven’t really seen her and we miss her.”

  “Sure. You guys aren’t weirded out about the whole thing, are you?”

  “I’ll admit it’ll take some getting used to,” Dad says. “But of course we’re okay with it.”

  Mom holds up her finger again. “But you need to be careful. As much as we love Maddie, I’m still wary about her power. Fire is very, very dangerous.”

  I nod. “I know. We’ve been training. She’s got most of it under control. And she’d never hurt anyone.”

  “Maybe not purposely.”

  Dad turns to Mom. “We need to trust them.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just worry.” She lifts her eyebrow. “Is your homework done?”

  I frown. “Most of it.”

  Dad claps me on the back. “You’d better get it done before you have to go out there, superhero.”

  I laugh a little awkwardly. Having my parents support this one hundred percent feels weird. Good, but weird.

  I’m in my room and pretty much done my homework when Maddie calls.

  “We were right,” she says. “The organization revealed my identity so they’d hurt someone I care about.”

  My heart nearly leaps out of my chest.

  “They were going to take my mom,” she says. “But I tracked her just in time. She was at the grocery and this guy threw her into his van. I got there and shoved him to the ground, then freed my mom. She was unconscious during the whole thing so I’m not sure if she even remembers. Just like Kaylee didn’t remember. The kidnapper was hired by the organization, and I bet his body has already been removed. Don’t worry. I didn’t kill him. Just blasted some garbage cans into him and knocked him out. He probably had a concussion, but that’s it.”

  I clutch my phone. “Good thing you caught them in t
ime.”

  She sighs. “Yeah. I know I make it seem like I don’t care about my mom, but I do. I don’t like what she did, but she’s still my mom.”

  “Yeah.”

  Quiet.

  “But why would they take your mom when she’s part of them?”

  “Maybe they thought it was the only way to get to me. I don’t think they would have hurt her.”

  Yeah, probably not.

  “Nick? I think there’s something we need to do. I don’t want to do it, but I’m sick of waiting around for them to strike. Or to hurt someone else we care about.”

  “Yeah, same. What do you have in mind?”

  She hesitates. “I think we need to talk to her about the documents we found. We need to find out where the organization’s headquarters is and we have to finally put an end to them.”

  “I think that may be best. When do you want to talk to her?”

  “Tomorrow after school. She’s sleeping in her room now. We didn’t even get a chance to talk about my being the Red Masked Heroine. I think she went shopping to get away from everything. She always shops to distract herself. I bet I’ll have a long convo with her tomorrow. Can you please be there? It’ll be easier.”

  “Of course.”

  “Thanks. How did your parents react?”

  Lying on my bed, I tell her about the discussion I just had with them downstairs.

  “Wait,” she says. “Your mom lets you be Blue again?”

  “Yep, on the condition that I get my homework done, which isn’t a problem. I’m a pro at doing my homework.”

  Maddie chuckles. Then she stops. “The news is still talking about the Hero being a Heroine. I don’t think they’ll ever get over this. And you know the phone’s been ringing off the hook? And we have reporters lurking outside.”

  I peek out my window. Sure enough, her house is surrounded with the leeches.

  “The cops are supposed to make order and get those people to leave,” Maddie says. “But I guess they have more important things to do, and that’s okay. The reporters don’t bother me as much as I thought they would.” She laughs. “Although they’re driving Stacey insane. Maybe she’ll finally move out.”

  I join in her laughter. “You never know.”