The Day Heroes Fell
The thrill of the hunt fills me as I sprint down through the labyrinth of the industrial warehouse. My heart races, adrenalin floods every limb until I’m practically flying down the hall. Shards of moonlight cut down from shattered skylights above, lighting the way, if only briefly. In flashes, I’m in darkness, using my mindsight to guide the way through doors and down stairs. At the bottom I hurl myself around a corner, then out into a large room full of machinery. Darkness consumes just about everything, so I duck into a nearby shadow, pressing my back into cold pipework. I shiver involuntarily and force my breathing to slow.
“Come out Nova. I can’t let you leave with those jewels,” intones Helix, a hero with the power to alter his DNA – give himself wings or night vision, if only briefly.
His deep, rumbling voice echoes throughout the machinery. A shiver snakes down my spine as I grin in the darkness. Every time I take something he’s there, dashing and handsome, and every time he takes me in – well, sort of. I always escape but long after he’s sent me to ‘prison’. I don’t want to take away from his victory too much; that, and I like our little game. Love it, actually, though I know the feeling is only one sided. A shame, though that may be.
“But they look so pretty on me,” I reply with a tremulous laugh, as though I’d love nothing more to be adorned in jewels. “I could be a Queen.”
“Is that what this is for you? Power?” He asks and I can here the curiosity in his voice, like he actually wants to know what drives me.
“Queens aren’t alone,” I say involuntarily.
In a burst of light, I gasp. A figure appears in front of me and for a moment I’m blind. Then my eyes adjust and his familiar form is in front of me. I’m trapped. My usual talents don’t work on him. His helmet, which frames his strong jaw, broad brow and intense blue eyes, shields his mind from my mental abilities. It’s a shame because, in moments like this, when we’re alone and he’s looking at me like this, I want to know what he’s thinking.
“Hand over the jewels, Nova,” he says.
Suddenly, the jewels feel heavy in my bag. I stare at him, knowing I could probably physically fight him but I’d likely lose. I bite my lip, annoyed I’d been trapped so easily, that the hunt was over.
So, I hand them over.
“You are a Queen, Nova. You run your own empire, smuggle everything imaginable-“
“Not people, not children or drugs,” I correct him defiantly.
His eyes widen. My sharp correction isn’t what he expected.
“You have all the power in the world and have brought the world to its knees before. Yet now you’re stealing a few worthless jewels? Why?”
I step closer to him and he braces but doesn’t attack. “Why do you care? You just throw me in prison.”
“Which you always escape from conveniently,” he says with an arch look, the corner of his lovely mouth twitching.
This makes me smile, though I don’t want to. I quickly force it away and stare him down stubborn as hell.
“So, why are you here?”
“Because I’ll always be the one to stop you, Nova,” he replies
Maybe it’s me but I swear he’s gotten closer, that we’re almost chest to chest. Close enough that, were he anyone else, I could kill him and it’d be easy. I probably wouldn’t even think or care. With him, it’s different. Everything is different.
His earpiece buzzes, snapping his focus. He steps back, answers, then looks at me. In a flash, he grabs my arm and the world spirals out from beneath my feet.
Maybe it was me but I swore he was going to kiss me.
Prison is like a holiday for me. A kind of rest from the hard slog of the empire I run. In prison, there’s no one hassling me for menial decisions. No problems with shuttles getting off world through the blockades that happen I swear every few months. There’s no hassles with rebels bargaining for supplies in off world colonies or mining asteroids. I’m alone, which I don’t like, but it’s quiet, which I do like.
Problem is, I get bored, restless. I pace the cell for a few hours, then when the guards move all the prisoners into the yard, which is a generous term for a large ass room with a few monitors fastened to the wall. It’s our glimpse into the outside world, a cruel reminder that we’re trapped. Well, that everyone else. I’m placed into a different prison or different section each time, as the wardens never want me to mix with prisoners whom know how awesome I am at escaping. They let me mingle because I always escape alone and they’ve given up all the fancy solitary confinements because they don’t work. So, they put me in general population, upgrade all the security so on and so forth. It makes them feel safe, look good and they have excuses when I escape.
I take a seat on a corner table and the monitor flicks on. The news flickers to life. A few disgruntled murmurs fill the harsh white room. Some want the sport on, which is perhaps one of the few mildly interesting things to watch. For them, anyway.
The face of a pretty blonde news reporter, surrounded by burning buildings, crackles into focus. “News reports are coming in now of hostile rebel faction In-Terra-Nor attacking the capital. Their leader, synthetic-made, Castra Nel, is said to be in a fight with hero, Helix and his team now.”
The camera cuts to an intense fight now from a little way off. It’s hard to focus on, as figures dart back and forth. Someone races around at dizzying speed – that’d be Delta, the team’s speedster. A synthetic. I see Helix, black wings jutting from his back, as he battles mid-air with Castra, who hovers magically in the air. They rush at each other, a blur of metal and flesh, of lethal attacks and stunning deflections.
One moment, it seems the fight is equal; in the next, Castra slams her hand into him, sending him crashing back to the ground. I step forward without thinking, like I could do something. Only, I was in prison and I hadn’t planned on getting out so soon. Plus, he’d always managed to save himself, to win the day. So, he’d be fine without me and, besides, if I helped him I’d ruin my whole empire. Who would work with someone who saved Helix, our enemy?
Dust bursts up, hiding him. Castra hovers there for a moment, never tearing her gaze away. The view shifts to another camera, one that has a close up of her face, that stony resolve – a woman whom had born in a war-torn world, raised in war, a warrior at heart. Albeit with one whom had few lines she wouldn’t cross and many she already had without a second thought.
Killing Helix would be easy for her.
She’d beat him, then kill him.
That I couldn’t allow. He is mine to defeat, my arch rival, not hers.
With a deep breath I glance around at the other prisoners, whom were all too absorbed by the TV. The guards keep watch of the prisoners. One meets my gaze, notices how I watch him back. That’s when I wink.
Before he could react, I snap my fingers and everyone in the prison whom I didn’t need passes out; the others stand, awaiting my orders.
The city was burning. Several streets leading up to it were a mess of burning buildings and shots resounding throughout the streets. Every so often a thunderous bang punctures the air, the ground shaking tremulously in response. I thread the cluttered roads on a bike I stole, hunkering low, racing dangerously fast with the hair whipping my hair behind me. I don’t hesitate, don’t even care that as I hurtle towards Helix, I begin to burn my bridges. No doubt, by now, some news camera has caught me. Maybe even a few are reporting. Perhaps not.
As I hit the last block the roads are too badly destroyed to do it; besides, with each blow that gets louder, riding becomes impossible. I stop with a loud screech and leap off the bike in one fluid movement, landing swiftly and breaking into a run. With ease I vault myself over wrecked cars and large piles of debris, bars jutting out at awkward angles. Once, I slide beneath a concrete beam, then roll up onto my feet and sprint on.
I round a corner, hit the main square, the heart of the damage. At once, it’s like I’ve run into a war zone; damage and fires, alarms screaming. Only, no one is fighting. Silence prevails. I creep forward and glimpse the centre where Helix and his team are on their knees. They’re lined up, as though for a firing squad, with collars around their neck and their limbs bound. Around the city square is dozens of drone cameras, the whole world watching on.
A public execution.
Castra steps up to Helix first, raises her plasma pistol.
I stand up and jog casually over; all at once, they notice me, several weapons and all the cameras focus on me. The world is watching me and not for the reasons I want.
Castra’s icy eyes snap to me, narrow fractionally.
“Nova Dawn, an unexpected surprise,” she remarks with a low drawl.
“Castra, about time we met. Honestly, I can’t believe we’ve never met before,” I say with a hurt expression. “It’s quite mean of you.”
“I don’t deal with jokes,” she replies dismissively, levelling her gaze back at Helix – she actions her gun.
I sigh loudly. “Well, that’s just rude but I can’t say I’m surprised. This all terribly dramatic and no style at all. Honestly, what do you hope to achieve?”
“Freedom for my people,” she replies, as if she actually believes it.
Without meaning to I laugh. “Um, murdering their idols is probably not the best way to do that. I’m no expert on it-“
“No, you’re not.”
“Be that as it may,” I say, biting the words off. “I suspect you’re only doing this because you don’t know how to do anything else. You’re nothing more than a wrecking ball. I mean, you can’t actually expect to be any sort of leader in this new pretty world of yours? You have no tact, certainly no class and,” I pause and rake my gaze up and down, “definitely no style to speak of. What are you wearing anyway? That is the real horror here.”
She hadn’t notice but with each word I got closer, her own men under my control. I brush past one and slam into her without warning, snatching the gun off and aiming it straight at Castra. She spins to me, gun pointed back at me.
“You’re saving them? Why?”
I cock my head. “He’s mine and I don’t like when other people try and steal my stuff. Besides, this is my city you’ve trashed and I take that personally.”
She opens her mouth but I fire first – well, we both do. She’s quicker than I thought. My shot hits her squarely in the chest.
Unfortunately, so does her.
I hit the ground, setting off a final command for her men to untie the others. Then, the darkness swallows me whole and I feel the cold quiet embrace my skin.
So, this is what heroism feels like? I hate it.
As I begin to awaken, stirring from the thick darkness that has me wrapped, I think I might be awakening in an afterlife. When I hear the soft murmur of voices over a distinct blip, a medical machine sounding off, I know I am alive. Somehow. I don’t know what to think or how to feel as I slowly open my eyes, half expecting to see a hospital room with police and cuffs on my wrists. There is none, which surprises me. In fact, all I am attached to is an IV line and a monitor on my finger. The door to my room is open and I don’t see a guard. I don’t see anyone, actually.
With a groan I force myself to sit up. I rub the bridge of my nose, exhaling deeply.
“Last time I help anyone,” I say aloud.
“I hope not. You saved our lives,” breaks in a familiar voice.
I look up sharply, cautiously. Helix. He stands in the doorway, leaning against it, arms across his broad chest. There is that same questioning intensity to his eyes, which I feel burrow down into my soul. What he sees, I don’t know. I don’t even know what I want him to see. No, that’s a lie. I know what I want him to see, to say but I know its foolish and naïve. He won’t see me like that. Period.
“I didn’t like that girl, especially how she wrecked my city. It was rude of her,” I say simply.
He laughs and crosses the room, slowly, as if dragging out the moment. In that moment, he seems like every other mortal man and, somehow, that scares me even more.
“You did something heroic. I think everyone is in a little shock about that,” he states with humour.
“I’m not a hero,” I retort.
He nods. “No, you’re not but you still did something heroic. My team thinks you saved us because we’re the lesser of two evils. I think you did it for some other reason. The same reason you stole the jewels and did all those other little things.”
“And why is that?”
He doesn’t say anything as he reaches out and puts a hand on mine. Just one hand. Our eyes lock but neither of us speak, nor move to part our hands. In that tiny room the silence says everything.
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