The Heroes

-By, cjg293

“Hey Jon?”

“yeah?”

“You remember that time we went to that museum in grade school?”

“Yeah…why are you asking?”

“Remember those things they had on display? Those little books with the guys and girls in the colorful suits”

“Comic books?”

“Yeah…comic books. I can’t believe those used to be such a big deal”

“Well back when those were popular people couldn’t shoot fire out of their fingertips.”

Ryan shoots me a look, and then looks down at the blob of fire burning in his hand which he has been throwing back and forth for the past two hours. For a couple seconds he just stares into the fire, letting the blaze illuminate his face, and then he shoots me a grin. It is painfully obvious what he is planning, and I know that there is likely nothing I can do to stop him. Yet still the standard words of warning pass through my lips.

“Don’t do it Ryan”

I barely get the words out before I see the burning sphere flying at me. Not to say I’m surprised, ever since Ryan’s mage powers awakened I’ve been dodging fireballs. Without even thinking I strum a chord on my guitar and use the sound waves to create a shield between me and the fireball. The fire stops a few inches from my face blocked by an invisible barrier of sound.

Knowing that it’s not going to break through my barrier, Ryan calls the fire back to his hands by flicking his wrist. “You’re no fun. You know that right?”

“Forgive me for not wanting my face to become bacon” I say, as sarcastically as humanly possible.

“It’d be an improvement” Ryan chokes out while laughing like a madman

As stealthily as I can I strum my guitar, and send a burst of energy towards Ryan. Before he knows what hit him he is flat on is back about 30 feet from the edge of the roof where he used to be sitting.

“Not…cool man…your power…is so cheap” He is struggling to breathe as he picks himself up again. Perhaps I put a little too much on that one. Oh well, it got him to shut up for a little while, that’s the important thing.

“My power is not cheap.” I say, suppressing a smile

“It is…I…can’t even see it coming…Jesus man, did you have to hit me in the lungs?”

I can’t help but laugh at this. I shoot a devilish smile at Ryan, I try to think of something witty to say…but that would just take away from my victory. Besides we are supposed to be on patrol, and so far all we’ve done is reminisce about the past and use each other for target practice. It’s a bit odd though, we’ve been out here for two hours and we haven’t had a single call yet. The city isn’t usually this quiet. Especially not at night, that’s usually when the guild is called the most. The fact that we haven’t gotten so much as a neighborhood watch reporting a suspicious squirrel is very odd…I’m getting concerned.

“Anything from the seer?” Ryan asks, not so much out of concern but boredom.

“If I had gotten anything you would have heard it too”

“Oh yeah, I forgot…damn telepaths” Ryan says, muttering the last part in hopes that it wouldn’t get heard

“I heard that” a feminine voice rings out in my head. I can tell the same thing happened to Ryan too as he begins to tense up.

“Of course you did!” he snaps “You fucking hear everything! I’m afraid to think any more because I know you could be lurking around in my brain. It’s annoying!”

He is about to say something else but before the words reach his mouth he is flung up into the air and held out over the busy street below.

“Oh I’m sorry” the voice chimes in “Did I break your concentration? please continue”

The look on Ryan’s face is priceless. Something between blind rage and scared shitless. At this point I am rolling on my back laughing like a crazed hyena, but I can still hear Ryan’s response.

“And, Paige is the best seer in North Guild. It is an honor to have her on my team and I am a greasy fire flinging gas sack…Now put me down you psycho bitch!”

“Hmm…maybe I should let you drop. We can always find another mage to round out the team” Paige’s voice chimes in, playfully, but with a good chunk of malice in her words. If I didn’t know her as well as I do I would think she was serious. To prove her point she drops Ryan about a foot before grabbing him and plopping him back on the roof.

Ryan doesn’t even bother to get up all the way. He just lays on his back, he almost seems afraid. “You guys always gang up on me…and I thought you couldn’t manipulate things unless you can see them!?”

“Well then, I guess I must be closer than you thought” This time I actually hear Paige’s voice, it’s not just being projected into my mind. I look around for a bit, trying to see her. However to my knowledge she is nowhere near our location. Cloaking? Yeah that’s probably it…damn telepaths.

I send a burst of sound in every direction around me until something humanoid bounces back. “She’s right in front of you buddy” I say to Ryan.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing but city”

“Moron, she’s cloaking. You know, screwing with our perceptions and stuff…trust the guy with sonar.”

Ryan looks out at the city and raises both of his hands. Suddenly a wall of fire bursts out and begins to move across the sky. After a few seconds a feminine silhouette gets cut into the wall. Her position compromised she lets us see her, floating about 30 feet directly in front of Ryan. She is directly between me and the moon. Her jet black hair shining in the pale light as it flows in the wind. She is tall, well taller than me, maybe about 6’2. She’s got a nice body too, not supermodel nice but something more real. If I had seen her like this a couple months earlier I would have found it sexy, but I don’t make mistakes like that…at least, not twice.

“Now what would have happened if that hit me?” Paige asks as she moves herself closer to us. “I could have been seriously hurt, and what would you two do without me?”

“Be happy” I think at her, not wanting Ryan to hear my words

Paige heard it, that much I can tell. She gives me a small angry look before rolling her eyes and going back to her spiel. “Anyways, I’ve got a job for us.”

“About time” Ryan says jumping to his feet “What do we got? Terrorists?”

“No”

“Bank Robbery?”

“No”

“Bomb Threat?”

“Nope”

“We got put on guard duty again didn’t we?” I finally chime in

“Unfortunately” Paige sighs “Some ambassador coming to the city needs an escort to his hotel…specifically requested they be from a Hero Guild”

“Usually hotel escorts doesn’t require supers. Something we should know?” I ask.

“Don’t know. But a job is a job. And I’m guessing it’s better than sitting out here and freezing all night.”

“You may be freezing” Ryan mocks as he cloaks himself in a brilliant yellow fire “But I feel perfectly fine.” Before anything else can be said Ryan leaps off the building and starts flying through the buildings, leaving a small trail of burning air behind him.

“You don’t even know where we’re supposed to go!” Paige calls after him, first verbally then mentally. I let out a small sigh and then using my guitar as a crutch push myself to a standing position. After stretching out my arms I limp to the edge of the room “c’mon lets go get our mage” I say to Paige as she touches down on the roof next to me.

“Are you sure you are up to it?” she asks.

“I’m fine!” I retort back, admittedly a little bit too angrily.

“Look…Jon, despite what you may think I’m not completely heartless. If you are still injured you can sit this one out. Ryan and I can handle it” There is genuine concern in her voice, but I really don’t care.

“And despite what you may think, I don’t need your pity…just your flight.” My bard powers don’t grant me the luxury of flight. So usually I piggyback off of Paige and have her levitate me whenever I need to get somewhere quick.

“Yeah, fine” Paige eventually squeaks out. Soon after I am floating above the buildings rushing off to who knows where. To my left Paige is focused on the horizon, keeping both of us afloat takes a lot of concentration, but still somewhere in the back of my mind I swear I can hear the words “I’m sorry” echo in my mind. Right now I ignore it. Even if I did here something right now I have to focus on the job.