Heroes & Villains

Ex 19 | What My Courage Looks Like

• • • • •
Sera POV

"No way" I say, "You're telling me a baby panda bear forms into a living, breathing thing in only one hundred days?"

With his eyebrows raised and a tight smile he nods, "They're really small" he shrugs like that explains all of my questions, "The mother panda is nearly nine hundred times bigger than the offspring."

"Aww" I've never been to a zoo, and I can't help thinking about them stumbling around, catching the gazes of all on-goers. "That's adorable, they're probably so chubby and—"

"Yeah it's a shame mother pandas kill their babies by accidentally crushing them with their weight" he sighs, gaining a few steps ahead of me as my feet abruptly halt. A few townsfolk with grocery bags grunt as they meander around us.

"What?" I exclaim, but he nonchalantly turns back. It's quite humorous how unbothered he seems to be. "Why would you say something like that?" I catch up to him, my mouth agape as he chuckles at my despair.

"You're a cyanic" I nudge my shoulder into his. I panick at my innate reflex, but he didn't seem to mind or even care enough to notice.

"And you" he pushes back, catching me off guard, "are naive."

We simultaneously both reach for the door to the public library, but end up retracting our hands in unison, caught in a moment of embarrassment and hesitancy.

"You just open it" I say, as what looks like to be a tiny smile forms at the corner of his mouth.

"Gods, Seraphine. It was one time" he says mockingly while raising his hands for emphasis, "We tased someone on accident one time."

The bell chimes as we walk in. Old Lady Maragret looks above her thick cat eye glasses. "No weapons are allowed here" she sighs, "that goes for the both of you."

I stifle my laugh as she narrows her eyes to Kal. "Margaret, can I call you Margaret? Well you see Seraphine here accidentally—"

"Oh shh" I hiss. Kal attempts to take a step to Old Lady Margaret's counter, but I'm quick to pull his sleeve as we meander around the bookshelves.

As I pull him away, I hear Old Lady Margaret's brittle voice filled with sass, "I want to hear none of that funny business, mister. I won't tolerate any sorts of misbehavior in here. I don't care what part of town you live in."

"None from me, ma'am. But I can't say the same for her. She has a taser on—OW" he winces as I tug his arm harshly.

"You're infuriating, and it was both of us who tased that guard. Key emphasis on the word both" I huff as I finally let go when we arrive to the table. I'm surprised he let me nearly drag him through the library, but he obliged, letting me nearly yank out his arm.

"The taser was a one time thing. I don't even know how we did that in the first place. I didn't even know we could" he shrugs as we loop around to take seats across from each other at the oak table.

"Actually..." I notice how his eyebrows furrow and his shoulders tense up. My hands are tucked in my lap to stop trembling, and his are folded quite mannerly on the table. "I asked Finn if my Fulmen abilities could make me a human taser."

His expression is unreadable, he looks calm and collected, a skill the North Chatham Villain students have mastered. "What?"

"He said that if there were two independent sources of electricity, like the two electro nodes of a taser, then it's possible. If we had control, theoretically, we could even cause extended muscle spasms, unconsciousness or put someone in a coma."