Heroes Chaper 22

Mira walked into town with her backpack over her shoulder, occasionally taking a swig from her water bottle. Gee-wiz, I feel like such a stalker! Why am I doing this?

Because your heart is filled with compassion.

Oh, great. The voice again. Compassion? For who? Mira? Ares? Oh, and what the heck are you? Seriously!

The stupid voice didn't answer. Instead, it said, You must choose now. You have to choose, it is your destiny.

Whoa, hey. Personal, much? I don't have to do anything, and, as for my destiny, the Oracle already told me my destiny. I'm suppose to save this team, and I guess I started with Jessie, and now I'm working on Ares and Mira.

I pulled out of my daydream long enough to see Mira step onto a bus. I ran after it, but it didn't stop. Great, what am I suppose to tell Ares now? That's when I heard a car honk behind me. I turned and saw Blair, and her brother, Norman, drive up to the curb. Blair was in the passenger's seat. She rolled down the window and said, "Were you trying to catch that bus?"

I looked over to Norman and he nodded, confirming that he had let her know. "Uh, yeah. I was hoping I could get to Hamburg." I said, remembering the name of the next stop on the bus lights on the back. Blair smiled, "Well, your in luck. We had to go to Hamburg to get some supplies for a school project. What about you?"

"Uh, same thing." I lied. I didn't know how to explain that I was following a girl into another town for a scary looking guy. Blair said, "Get on in."

I sat in the back seat. Norman started driving and talked casually, "So, I heard you're new in town. Where you from, exactly?" I said, "Trenton, Virginia. Close by to D.C." He said, "Wow. Long way. There a lot of things different around here?" I said, "Yeah, it's not as crowded." Blair and Norman laughed.

Blair added, "Yeah, that's Ohio for you, every town consisting of twenty-two people. Oops. I mean twenty-three." I said, "It's still a nice little town." Now that I got a better look at Norman and Blair side-by-side, I saw that they both had strawberry blond hair and grey eyes. Blair shrugged, "It's nice, I guess."

Norman cleared his throat. After a few minutes, Blair said, "Uh, Alex?" I said, "Uh-huh?" She was twirling her hair and I could see that she was biting her lip. "I was wondering....well, um, if you would want to come over to our house for dinner on Friday?" I saw Norman adjust the mirror so that he could see me, or maybe so that I could see him. I said, "Uh, Ok. Sure. That would be nice."

She perked up and said, "Oh, okay. Um, you can ride home with us after school, is that okay?" I said, "Yeah. That would be just fine." She said, "Great." We got to the store and Norman stopped the car. I said, "Thanks guys, really. I'll see you Friday?" She said, "Yep. See you." I got out and waved by to them. After they drove off, I spotted Mira entering a building.

Wow, that was lucky.

Heroes Chapter 21

Anyway, after going through the school day, and hanging out a little more with Blair, I was walking home with a grin on my face. Then, it dissappeared when I reached the Punk Yard. I found Ares on the couch in the lounge, blowing his nose into a tissue.

He said, "Alex. Wait up." I froze in mid-step. What could he want with me? I mean, I haven't even seen Mira all that much, and I certainly wouldn't be caught alone with her. I went back into the lounge. "Yeah? What's up?"

Ares sat up and snorted. He kept staring down at the floor. He sighed, then said, "I want you to follow Mira." I blinked a few times. "What?" He looked up at me. "Look," he began, "it's not that I don't trust her, but......she just......" He tried to gesture with his hands, but he gave up and threw them down. He sighed and said, "She sneaks off everyday, right after school, and I have no clue about what she's doing." I said, "Maybe she's going to see a friend?" He responded, "She doesn't tell anybody anything. I asked some of her friends at school, and they don't know anything either." I tried to compromise, "Maybe she just feels controlled, man. She needs to feel like there's some aspect in her life that she controls." He looked at me. "She doesn't come back for hours. Once, she wandered off and didn't come back till nine at night."

I shrugged. He sighed, got up, and wiped his nose as he walked towards me. He said, "Listen man, just humor me, alright? I need to know. I'm starting to think that she's....." He shook his head and said, "I don't know, man." I think I understand now, he thinks she's having an affair. Ugh, when did I step into this soap-opera? I must have taken a wrong turn back there somewhere in the Punk Yard hallways.

I asked, "Why can't you do it?" He put two fingers in the air. "Two reasons." he said, "One, she'll spot me a mile away. She's seen me too often. Two,......" He sneezed into his tissue. "Ach-CHOO!"

I nodded. "Good point." I said. He said, "She's stops by the kitchen to grab a snack before leaving. She'll be here any minute." I nodded and started to leave, when Ares called out after me again, "Alex." I turned around. "This never happened. Understand?" I reluctantly nodded. I just know, with my luck, I'll end up as target practice.

I went to the kitchen and grabbed an apple. I got out a book and opened it on the table to look busy, and waited for Mira. Eventually, with Dexter and Jessie passing through, Mira came on in. She smiled and said, "Hey." She then grabbed a water bottle and walked on out.

I sighe. This was going to turn out so well.

Fallen Chapter 28

I told Scrat that I was a runaway, which was the truth, and I was looking for a new place to crash. I thought he could point me out to an abandoned building or something. Instead, he said, "Hey! My guys can hook you up, man! Ever here of the Chain Gang?"

It did sound familiar. I shrugged. "I'm from out of town, remember?" He laughed. Then he said, "Stop me if you've heard this before; four guys who perform a legitimate public protection service to the area. Just call us up, tell us your story, and we'll take care of it. Well, for a small fee of course."

I took a minute to take this in. "You're...." I began, "a rent-a-cop?" A flash of anger appeared on his face, then he calmed down. "That's under-mining it a bit. Did you notice I didn't actually pay for any of the food you're eating?" Now that I think about it, I saw a lack of greens being exchanged at the counter when we were up there.

He smiled. "We saved this place from getting totally trashed. They repay us with some free grub, eh, well, once a day at least. We can't completely clean this place out." he finished, chuckling a little at the end. "But, you get the idea right? We're like those, uh, 'Hero for Hire' guys in the comics. Like Luke Cage, ya' know?"

I did kind of know. This kid wanted to be a hero, to seize the moment, like I did when I was trying to save the people in that building so long ago.

After a minute or two of silence, he said, "So you want to hang with us, or what?" I nodded. "Let's go. Right after I finish these fries."

We walked to what looked like a condemned apartment building, when he stopped, turned around and said, "Double M-X-two." Actually, he almost screamed it at me. I gave him a funny look and said, "What?" He looked at me for a long time and said, "Sorry. Just testing you. I had to make sure you weren't a spy or something."

This sounded interesting, "Spy for what, exactly?" He sighed and said, "There's been a gang running around that seems to like causing havoc. Been giving us crap since they formed." Then he opened the door leading into the condemned building. "Wait." I said. He stopped and half-turned to me. He smiled and said, "Trust me for a sec, will ya?"

I was reluctant, but I followed him into the building. The room looked like an over sized living room. The floor was all carpeted dark blue, except the little square where we entered. The square was surrounded by shoes of every kind. I saw one pair of girl shoes. The far right of the room had a fair sized TV surrounded by old couches and lawn chairs. On the other side, there was a brown wooden desk with filing cabinets against the walls. The desk was cluttered with papers, a phone, and an old computer. There were three other guys and one girl in the room. The girl was behind the desk writing something down with one hand, and typing something else with the other. The guys were watching a football game. Everyone froze and stared at me; not at Scrat, but me.

Luckily, Scrat knew what to say, "It's okay guys. He's cool. He saved my butt from some Double M-X-two thugs." Within seconds the guys were standing in front of me, checking me out. Scrat was the shortest of them, the black kid was in the middle, and the other two were competing with height. The black kid stood in front of the rest. "How we know if he ain't a spy, or something?" he said. The Hispanic girl called out to him, "Eddie...."

Eddie turned to her and said, "What? It happened before, and we lost-" He shut his mouth. A sense of dread swept the kids and hung in the air. I sighed. "Scrat," I said, "I appreciate the offer, but I don't think this is going to work. Thanks for the meal though." Scrat grabbed onto my arm. "Wait up, man. Guys, he ain't a spy. He doesn't even know the gangs around here." The skinnier of the two tall ones said, "Is he from out of town?" Scrat and I looked at each other. "Something like that." We both said.

Eddie pulled Scrat aside and they both started talking in hushed voices. The stick and the giant blocked my view from them. After a minute of just scuffing my shoe on the floor, Eddie and Scrat revealed themselves again. "OK." Eddie said, "We'll let you crash here, but only if you help us out a little bit. No free-loaders here. Got it?"

I nodded. "Fair enough." I said.

Fallen Chapter 27

After I escorted Raphael to the hospital, I took to the streets. I didn't even go back to the apartment building.

I was just wandering around now. That went so well, can I just hang out somewhere and not get someone almost killed?

I was walking in some park downtown. I was in my own little world, imagining what I could do next. I looked around, there were nice families around, a teen couple just walked by, holding hands. I looked over to an alley way. There I saw a short kid being shoved into it by three other guys. He had a second of sight, and he used it to give me a look of panic.

The smart thing to do: act like I saw nothing and don't attract attention to myself. The right thing to do: go after them.

I sighed. I darted to the alleyway from the seat. Cars honked at me as I ran through the street. I ran into the alley and ran into an opening. It must have been a docking bay for trucks, but right now, it was the sight of seven different gangsters with hoods. When I entered, everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at me. The kid looked at me in disbelief, as if to say, "Why didn't you go and get help?" I cursed silently.

"Lost?" one of the gangsters said. I said, "Sorry. Just realized that kid owed me some money, and he can't really pay me back if he's laying in a gutter somewhere, right?" The gangsters were all on their feet and walking towards me, reminding me of zombies.

I said, "Now, guys, I'm sure we can work something out." I slowly pushed both my wings out. When they saw them, they stopped in their places. I said, "After all, I came here from out of town to deliver a message." I flapped them once and was now hanging from a metal staircase that was above me. I finished. "God doesn't like what y'all doin' here. Go home and start rethinking your lives." Everyone started freaking out and running. Everyone but the short kid. He stood in place, staring at me in awe, or maybe fear.

I said, "Now's the time for you to leave in fear, but still be thankful that I saved your-" He interrupted me, "Dude! That was awesome!" Okay. Not what I was expecting.

"Uh..." was all I could say. He continued, "How did you do that? Aw, it doesn't matter. I owe you big time angel kid!" I dropped down and tucked my wings in. I tried to settle him down, "Shh. Hey. Settle down kid." He nodded, but was still grinning like a possum. "So. With those wings. Can you seriously fly?" I sighed. "Well, yeah. I'm not like a ostrich or anything." He laughed.

He then said, "Listen dude, I need to do something for you, just name it. Anything." I was about to answer one of those modest, bull-crappy answers you would say to sound like a hero, but my stomach roared in hunger. The kid looked at me and laughed a little, "How about a meal? On me?" I smiled, shyly. "Sure. That would be great."

When we started walking, he introduced himself as Scrat. We walked our way to a nearby fast-food restraunt, then he bought us both something and we sat down. He said, "So. You live around here or what?"