We Could Be Heroes 2

by Harmon Cooper

  “Are you saying that you know another way in?” Zoe asked.

  Dorzmon yawned. “All I’m saying is that I know these caverns pretty well, and you would be surprised where some of them let out. If you ask nicely, I can take you to one that would drop you off not more than a mile or so from the school. But that will have to wait for tomorrow. The five of you have ruined my night, so the least you could do is let me get some rest. I know it isn’t much,” he said, sweeping his hand toward the rocky ground, “but it’s home. So please, make yourselves comfortable.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six: Family Reunion

  (All the feels.)

  Resting came naturally for the others, but not Ozella Rose. As usual, she was the only one that was awake, sitting across from Dinah. The blue ghost woman was up too, sitting with her legs crossed, and playing with her hair. Strangely enough, her nipples were hard from the cold.

  Ozella was excited to get the books that Juniper had promised her, stoked to learn more about runes.

  And what an incredible magic!

  Ozella could only imagine what rune magic was capable of. Case in point: the candles all around the cave which gave off no smoke, their flames not actually made of fire. They were made of dancing light, yet another magical wonder available to these rune casters.

  And it really did fascinate Ozella.

  After everything she had learned in school, and with all the books she had read and games she had played, there had hardly been any mention of runes.

  And here they were, in the Southern Alliance, experiencing an entirely different world.

  This made Ozella want to travel more, to the West, the North, the East. And hopefully, as a member of Vigilante Justice, they would be able to do just that.

  What would the other Centralian exemplar teams think if they knew where Vigilante Justice was now? What if they knew just how close they were to getting to the bottom of a potentially global crisis?

  Ozella was used to being marginalized.

  She was used to being other, different, and even if they were never accepted by the other exemplar teams of Centralia, she would be okay with it. Maybe one of the others wouldn’t like it, but to Ozella it would be par for the course, something not at all foreign to her.

  Still, there was a small part of her that just wished this was normalized, that the other groups would recognize them for what they were contributing (or at least attempting to contribute) to the greater good.

  Dinah made her way over to Sam, who slept next to Helena, using his jacket for a pillow.

  They didn’t need blankets; the cave was a perfect temperature, not too warm, not at all cold. It did, however, look strange to see people just lying on the ground without blankets, the visual reminding Ozella what it would look like if everyone suddenly just died.

  She cast this morbid thought away as Dinah crouched in front of Sam, examining him.

  She definitely had noticed that Dinah had taken a liking to Sam, but Ozella couldn’t blame her. Sam was an all-around good guy, and the only male in their group, so she expected Dinah to be curious.

  What she didn’t expect was for Dinah to lay down next to Sam in her ghost form, her face inches away from his, staring at him in a dreamy way.

  “Stop it,” Ozella whispered.

  She saw Zoe’s ear twitch, the tiger girl turning to the other side. Zoe wasn’t far from Juniper, who Ozella was starting to like as well. The rune user brought an interesting dynamic to the team, her attitude somewhere between Helena and Zoe’s, and her knowledge something Ozella definitely was excited to soak up.

  “I said stop that,” Ozella hissed at Dinah, who moved even closer to Sam, making kissy lips at him. “You are so much trouble.”

  Dinah sat up and moved to a crouching position, scooting until her transparent ass was planted firmly on Sam’s face.

  “Stop it!” Ozella gasped, Sam waking up, and pressing his head through Dinah’s rear as he sat up.

  “Sorry.” Ozella winced as she watched Helena flutter her eyes open, yawn and go back to sleep.

  “What are you doing, Dinah?” Sam asked.

  The ghost woman stood in front of him, her bald lady bits inches away from Sam’s face.

  “Go away,” Ozella said, a darkness to her voice that Sam had rarely heard. Dinah began to fade almost immediately, but not before sticking her tongue out at Ozella, and winking down at Sam.

  Sam scratched the back of his head. “What was all that about?”

  “She’s acting up,” Ozella told him, biting her lip for a moment. “She tried to sit on your face with her bare ass.”

  “She did?” Sam ran his hand through his hair as he carefully inched away from Helena. He got to his feet and moved over to Ozella, sitting on his knees in front of her. “Let’s talk.”

  “Talk about what? I don’t know why she did that…”

  “I’m not too worried about Dinah,” Sam told her, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes for a moment. “So she isn’t socialized. I mean, she can kind of do whatever she wants in that form anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”

  “You are right, but it doesn’t make it any less awkward.”

  “I need to make a confession to you,” Sam said suddenly. “Something happened…”

  “What?”

  “Dinah…”

  “Dinah, what?” Ozella could tell that Sam was thinking of the best way to explain something to her. Eventually, he shook his head, and shrugged, as if he were having an extended dialogue with himself.

  “Look, I like you. I told you I wasn’t able to sniff anything out at your parents’ home, and that was wrong. I did sniff something out, and I’m pretty sure…”

  “Pretty sure what?”

  “Dinah is your twin sister. She died just before you were born. You came out first, and then she came out… well, dead.”

  Ozella’s eyes started to water. “She’s my sister?”

  “Yes. I helped your mom bring some laundry into her bedroom, and that’s where I discovered what had happened. You see, your mom went into labor and had you in her bedroom, Dinah coming next, your dad getting there too late and blaming himself, even though there wasn’t anything he could do. This was why he became a nurse, you know. Before that, he had a different job.”

  “I vaguely remember my dad studying when I was young, but that’s just a vague memory. So Dinah was born dead, that’s what you’re saying.”

  Sam nodded.

  “I guess it makes sense, right? She does kind of look like me.”

  “I confirmed everything, and I also asked Helena to have her assistant look into it. Sure enough, Mrs. Rose had two babies, one alive and one dead. Even stranger, she was actually going to name your sister Dinah.”

  “My imaginary friend for my entire life has actually been my dead twin sister?” Ozella brought both hands to her cheeks and looked down at the ground for a moment. “But I thought I came up with the name Dinah.”

  “I got a sense of that as well, you telling your mom that you kept seeing this blue girl that looked like you, your mother saying you should name her Dinah. It happened when you were young, so I don’t think you remember all the details. And your parents were planning to tell you about it at some point, but as they grew older, and as you grew more independent, they decided not to bother you with it. I think they meant well by doing this. And I’m certain they weren’t trying to withhold information from you in a cruel way or anything.”

  “I figured,” said Ozella. “That’s not really their style anyway. But they can be overprotective, which they sort of let up on over the last few years. I just…” She took a deep breath. “Power-up, on.”

  Dinah’s form took shape, solidifying, her skin no longer blue. Ozella stood immediately and brought Dinah into her arms, giving her an intense hug. She pulled away, her hands on Dinah’s shoulder. “You are my sister,” Ozella told her, a tear appearing in her eyes.

  Dinah started to nod, also tearing up as if she’d known all along.
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  “I’m just so glad you are here,” Ozella told her as she gave the woman another hug.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Crawling through Holes

  (Spelunk sounds so salacious.)

  Sam was a bit groggy the next morning, mostly because he had spent another hour awake, talking to Ozella and listening to some of the stories of her childhood. Eventually, Ozella started to yawn, and once she lay down Sam brought his jacket over to her to use as a blanket. This was purely out of habit, instinct, and even though Ozella told him it was fine, she ended up using it for warmth anyway.

  Dinah was transparent again by this point, Ozella wanting to save as much of her time as she could, knowing that if everything went according to plan, today would be the day that they arrived at the School of Heart.

  “Are you hungry?” Juniper asked as soon as she saw Sam sit up. His back hurt some; sleeping without a pillow had taken its toll.

  “Definitely,” Sam said, “but I have to deactivate my nose if I’m going to eat anything.”

  “No, there is no food here, so we will use runes for nourishment.”

  “What the hell did we pack then?” he asked, referring to their backpacks.

  “I didn’t expect to find a cave. Most of what we packed was other items necessary for a camp. Relax, just like how my runic magic made you warm, it will satiate you.”

  “Does that work?” Sam asked, noticing that Helena was in the corner of the cave, stretching. Sam was surprised to see Zoe stretching alongside Helena, the tiger girl entirely focused on what Helena was telling her.

  “Of course it works. Why would I suggest it if it didn’t work?”

  “Good point,” Sam said.

  The former academic named Dorzmon was up as well, sipping from a cup of tea. Only thing was, there was no fire around to make tea, nor did there seem to be any steam coming off the top of the beverage.

  “Nothing like a good rune in the morning,” the old man said, smacking his lips. “I’m kidding, there was something in here earlier. It’s just all gone now.”

  He tipped the cup over and gave Sam a weird look, as if he were trying to prove some philosophical point.

  “Feel that?” Juniper asked, the woman using her finger to trace a gesture in the air that reminded Sam of a figure eight.

  “Actually…” Sam burped. It now felt as if he’d just eaten a rather large meal. “That’s… Remarkable.”

  “Don’t get used to it. I need to conserve my power for later today.”

  “That you do,” said Dorzmon. “And for the record, I still think this is an incredibly stupid idea.”

  “We didn’t ask for your opinion, only for you to get us there,” said Zoe.

  Once Ozella was up, and Zoe and Helena were done stretching, the old man turned to the wall, the veins in his arms lighting up as he brought his hand to the surface of a large rock.

  The rock faded away, revealing a fairly large tunnel.

  “Who’s up for a little spelunking?” he asked with a cackle. Lifting his robes, he scooted into the tunnel, Juniper following behind him, then Helena, Zoe, Ozella and Sam.

  The tunnel was about four feet high and five feet wide. It was already lit by the time Sam crawled in at the back, the bodies of the people in front of him casting odd shadows into the space.

  Sam listened to Dorzmon talk with Juniper about the differences between the school she’d attended, and the school where he’d taught for fifty years or so.

  He really is close to a hundred years old, Sam thought, which he found interesting considering the man was so active and spry. Aside from a nasty cough, he seemed to have the stamina of a man thirty or forty years his junior.

  Probably runes, Sam surmised as they continue deeper into the tunnel. He wasn’t feeling claustrophobic or anything, but he did hope that they didn’t have to turn back, especially now that the width of the space had started to shrink in size, going from five feet to about three feet wide.

  While she was wearing cashmere tights, every time he looked up, he got a glimpse of Ozella’s ass, which Sam found himself watching once or twice, only to look away once he realized he was being a creep.

  This triggered the memory of that strange dream he’d recently had about hooking up with Zoe. Even weirder, she had been in her half-tiger form in his dream, so it definitely wasn’t one of those dreams where a person relives a scenario. No, there was something completely new about it, and he was glad that Helena wasn’t able to look into his mind and examine it.

  Even worse would be a dream walker.

  Sam had heard of those types of exemplars who could move through dreams and modify things, discovering some of their deepest, most hidden thoughts in the process. It was about this point that he tuned back in to the conversation taking place at the front of the line.

  “...No, you are all wrong about the School of Heart,” Dorzmon told Juniper. “Like all the other students in the four schools, you have been trained to be distrustful of your brothers and sisters, even though we are using the same type of magic, just interpreted differently. I’m sure you have heard all the rumors about the School of Whisper?”

  “That they will stab you in the back?”

  “That’s the one. Where do these rumors come from? Have you ever thought about that?”

  “From what one of my professors told me, it comes from an incident several decades ago. Maybe forty or fifty years?”

  “Forty or fifty years? Girl of the Script, I was alive forty or fifty years ago, and I can tell you that that very same rumor was also forty or fifty years old at the time.”

  “You are referring to the one about the man named Zamhat who betrayed a ring runer by the name of Colander?”

  “That’s the one. We all know that story. They were friends, went to separate schools, got back together afterward, and Zamhat cursed Colander after he found out that Colander had unknowingly had relations with a relative. And now we all think the people from the School of Whisper are going to betray us. Because of a rumor.”

  “There were actual rivalries, ones that go back centuries…”

  “I know, I know,” said Dorzmon, “but really, are they worth it? Should you or I really have a grudge against one another over something that happened four hundred years ago? This is what has prevented the Southern Alliance from growing as strong as Centralia.”

  “I thought it was bribes,” Zoe said, throwing her tiger ears into the ring.

  “Bribes? What is this, the East?” Dorzmon laughed. “Actually, I retract the statement I just said. The rivalries faced by our schools are similar to the rivalries faced by the countries of our world. It is a fascinating thing to think about, and an even more viable thing to go to war over. But I suppose I can save that lecture for another day. We’re here.”

  Sam had definitely noticed that the light in the area had started to change as they approached the exit of the tunnel. It was only a few minutes later that they found themselves standing on a path cut into the side of a mountain, overlooking a grand institute of learning set in the center of an expansive valley.

  It looked epic, the School of Heart featuring everything a castle would have aside from the drawbridge. There were spires, a wall-walk, numerous buildings set within the walls, from dormitories to casting rooms. It was one of the most beautiful things Sam had ever seen, something completely foreign to a man from Centralia, who had lived his life surrounded by towering skyscrapers.

  The School of Heart’s size also presented another challenge: how were five people going to assault something so large?

  ***

  “Well, I don’t really care how you do it, but this is the end of the line for me,” Dorzmon said on the tail end of a cough. He’d just listened to Helena’s plan and didn’t seem too impressed as he picked something out of his beard, looked at it, and flicked it away. “I have upheld my part of this bargain by bringing you here, and now it’s off to my cave again.”

  “Then go already,” Zoe told him. “You’ve made yo
ur opinion known, and even though you could actually be helpful to us, you’ve decided to go live in a cave instead. But that’s your prerogative. I get that, so go.”

  “I will go when I’m ready, Tiger Girl.”

  “It’s Zoe, and I know that name may be hard for someone from the South to pronounce, but I assure you, if you give it a shot, you’ll probably be able to remember it.”

  “Well, out of the five of you, I see who’s not getting a birthday present from me this year,” he said, his tone of voice one that a lecturer would take with an ornery student, one that he secretly tolerated.

  “I just think it’s too risky,” Sam said, ignoring the old man.

  Right now wasn’t the time for bullshit antics or negativity.

  The decisions they were making now had serious repercussions for the future of the team, including if they would even live to see that future. They were going up against some incredible odds, aside from Donovan, Mia, the gray vampire, and the man whose arms morphed into bladed weapons. There were likely enforcers in the school as well, lecturers who would fight back too.

  “The better we know our enemies, the better we will be able to take them out,” said Helena. “Let’s start there, let’s see who we’re truly up against.”

  “I am less interested in taking out our enemies than I am killing the vampire children,” Zoe said. “We can deal with our enemies later, after we have portaled out of here; there’s no hope for the children anyway, and it’s better that they die.”

  “Taken out of context, that would be just about the most supervillainy thing I think anyone has ever said,” Dorzmon commented.

  “Why are you still here?” Zoe asked.

  Dorzmon laughed. “So feisty. I would have loved to have you in one of my classes.”

  “Then we shall have a vote,” said Helena. “All for the plan I’ve laid out, raise your hand.”