The Cosmic Flame burned brightly in its place in the temple. I pondered what that man had told me: 'Few have been given the title of the Cosmic Fireguard. Know its meaning." I woke up from this strange dream. It's been like this for the past week. I keep getting these strange dreams about some Cosmic Flame or whatever. I walked over to my desk to take my glasses and discovered a note beneath them: 'These dreams have a meaning. This is one of the few many perks of the Fire Cosmic.' What did that mean? I had so many questions. But I was soon rattled by a knock on my bedroom door. "Wake up, William! You're nearly late for school!" This was my mom. "Mom, I'm coming!" I hid the note in my backpack. It's been a year since Dan left us. I never got over his death. We used to walk to school together, he would joke about all sorts of things. "If birds burp, do they smell like bugs?" I remembered him talking. I wiped a tear from my eye as I approached the school gates. The words "Academy of the Talented" no longer meant anything to me. I entered the now bleak and colorless campus of the school. At least the medal I won from last year's science competition was still here. I sighed as I entered Room 203, my form room. I remembered when Dan was here, he would cheer the class up by making fun of himself. Good things always end, I thought to myself. The teacher entered the room, silencing everyone. As the teacher went on about all the announcements of the school, I wondered what Dan's last words meant to me. "Farewell. I have things to take care of." What things? I ran my memories back to what happened last year. We were trying to stop a black hole from destroying the city, and Dan had willingly leaped into it. I saw a face. A face with a smile. An evil, sickening grin. Before the black hole collapsed, with my only friend in it. By now Ashley had walked up to me, asking what I was thinking. We had only gotten closer ever since Dan left us, so I was comfortable with telling her. "I know you're still sad that Dan died, but he must have left for a reason." "I know. It's just... unlike him to leave such cryptic last words." The bell rang as we made our way to our next class, math. "Wanna train after school?" Ashley's words broke me from my thoughts. She always had her ways of changing the subject of a conversation. "I will." I responded. After last year, I had been readily able to control my superspeed and electrokinesis. Ashley, however, gained cryokinesis and hydrokinesis. We had defeated several criminals who used tricks and talents of their own. Of course, acting as vigilantes we had troubles of our own too. Like keeping a "secret identity" and a superhero name. I picked up the name "Thunderclap". Dan used to call me that. Ashley chose "Hydro". I didn't criticize. After all, I loved her. We reached the classroom. We sat down. After all, we had our own way of communicating in class. My grades no longer mattered to me as much. I saw no challenge and easily aced my classes. The teacher would surely give me a second chance, I thought. Ashley, on the other hand, wasn't that good. Her grades were like the heartbeat you see on a monitor. She had B's and C's for some subjects, but her grades spiked up for P.E. I wrote a note to her, carefully writing the class notes on the back of the piece of paper. I had my own reasons for doing this. "Ashley, you remember all of the criminals we defeated had mentioned some boss, right? I know something's happening." I passed the note to her. "I know, but I just kinda thought they were hired by some ordinary mafia boss or something?" She replied. "I don't know. I have a feeling it's him I saw in the black hole. Maybe it was a wormhole." The teacher soon saw this, and questioned us. "What are you doing passing notes?" Ashley saw the opportunity and turned the note over. "Oh, William was showing me his notes because I didn't understand some of them." I smiled. "I appreciate your kindness, William, but if Ashley needs help she can ask me for help, OK?" Ashley nodded. She had two sides as far as I knew her. If she was around her friends and family, she would be very nice, almost adorable. Around enemies like bullies or criminals, she would defeat them no matter the cost, with an undying willpower. I liked her a lot. Class ended and we made our way to the park. We decided to skip the next class, english, as Mrs. McDonald would mostly make us finish our essay. Us, of course, had our plans. We submitted them in the previous lesson. We made our way to our secret hideout, a science lab on the fourth floor. No one ever used that because there was a chemical spill there, but we had our own ways to clean it up. This was essentially our secret hideout. We decided to discuss our daily lives. Since the topic of dreams came up, I told her about the Cosmic Fireguard. I was quite surprised to know that she also had the same dreams. The same man told us of the Cosmic Fireguard. We decided that this was more than a coincidence. We would use our own way. The dreams gave us the coordinates of a place:1089N,9801E. It was through various research we found that that place was somewhere off the map.
