Shining Heroes

Chapter 114

I walked into my apartmenta d sur enough mood had left my clothes neatly folded on my coffee table, and the suit jacket was hanging on the back of a chair.

"That mission couldn't have gone any smoother." I sighed in relief as I sat down in my kitchen.

I wasn't entirely sure why they chose me for that mission. Maybe it was to add emphasis to what we said about a hero being on call, but I was glad to not have to continue talking about that ballet they wanted me to do

I pulled out my phone to text Mood, and I found a text from her.

'I was sent out of town for a mission. I'll message you when I can. Blaze on, Firefly. '

When I tried to message her back, the text immediately was marked undeliverable.

"What are you doing?" I muttered to myself.

I waited for hours, staring at my phone, waiting for her to message me. I was worried that she was ignoring me.

Finally, around midnight, my phone lit up.

'Are you awake?' My body was instantly filled with energy upon seeing it was from her.

'Yes. What's going on?'

'I was assigned a mission to find a mole in one of our other sectors.' I was about to message her again when I noticed she was typing again. 'I won't be able to message you much. I'm having my sister hide our messages, but my phone is being monitored. I'll message you as often as I can.'

'Please be careful. How long will you be gone?'

'Of course, Firefly. I have to stay until I find the mole.'

I was in the middle of texting a response when I was alerted of an attack happening close to my apartment.

"Damn it..." I muttered and erased my previous message.

'I have to go.' I quickly sent before rushing around to put my shoes back on.

'What's going on?'

'Villains never sleep. Sing your heart out.'

I had to put my phone into my pocket as I ran out the door.  Once I was outside, I ran to my motorcycle.

I hadn't realized how tired I was until I was pulling over.

"He locked himself in the bank safe." Captain Whirlwind groaned as soon as I walked into the bank.

"So what do you need me to do?" I asked as I looked around the room. It looked like someone trashed the place, but I couldn't find anyone who would be guarding the bank.

"Can you melt the lock?"

"That doesn't seem like the best option." I said as I walked around. "Doesn't this place have armed guards? They should be able to unlock it."

"I couldn't tell you where they are. The alarms were going off, so we came here, and they paniced and locked themselves in the vault." Captain Whirlwind shrugged his shoulders.

"The guards probably ran." Hydron added.

"What about the bank manager?" I asked while putting my hands in my pockets.

"No answer." Hydron shrugged. "We dont have time to waste."

I sighed and walked over to the vault. I wasn't entirely sure where to aim to unlock the vault, so I aimed at the hinges first.

"I need someone to mark where the vault locks." I said as I slowly made progress on the hinges.

Hydron seemed very impatient as he paced around while Captain Whirlwind was using forcing wind into the locks to find their weak spots.

"What is taking you so long?" Hydron whined.

"I'm sorry, unlike you. I worked all day." I quipped back.

"Just take one of your fucking pills." He groaned.

I stopped and put my hand in my pocket. I pulled out the bottle of pills.

Surely Mood would understand me taking them this time. I mentally cursed myself before taking a couple of the pills.

The medicine kicked in a lot faster this time, but it still wasn't fast enough for Hydron. Eventually, I managed to get through the vault door, and we were met with two men panicking with their hands in the air. As Hydron and Captain Whirlwind arrested the two men, I looked inside the vault. There was a third person hiding behind a cart.

Upon further inspection, it looked like they had been trying to dig their way out, but they didn't expect the vault to be entirely encased with metal.

"Stand up." I ordered.

They quickly stood up, and I could see they had been crying. They looked like they were my age, if not younger.

They put their hands in the air without being told to do so.

"What's your name, kid?" I asked softly.

"Jackson Snow." His voice was shaking as he tried to find any ounce of confidence.

"How old are you?" I asked as I showed him my hands to help calm him down

"15."

"Come on." I motioned towards the vault  door.

He continued  to cry silently while walking out of the vault. I glanced around that vault again, and I didn't see anyone else.

Suddenly, one of the villains that we arrested began to yell and was frantically trying to break free.

"We forced him!" The other yelled as soon as the boy was in their site.

Hydron and Captain Whirlwind were too busy trying to conatin the villains that they didn't notice I had the boy with me.

Part of me knew this boy was willingly with them, but another part of me couldn't throw this boy's life away.

"Act like you're hurt." I whispered as I took my jacket off.

I placed it over his shoulders and forced his arm over me to support him.

"You're too hot." He winced as my hand made contact with his arm.

"I'm sorry." I muttered.

I walked the boy out of he building.

"The kids hurt!" One of the villains yelled.

I walked the boy to an ambulance, and we were surrounded by police officers before Hydron or Captain Whirlwind could get close.

"This boy was a hostage." I quickly said to the cops as I loaded him into the ambulance.

I would have gone with him, but I could feel the heat radiating off me was going too much to be in an enclosed vehicle right now, so one of the police officers volunteered to go with him and to contact his parents before they handed me back my jacket.

"What the hell was that?" Hydron yelled.

"Protcal states any injured hostages are to receive treatment. He says he was a hostage, and so do they." I said calmly while fighting the urge to shoot flames at him.

"They will say anything to protect their own."

"The kid was hurt..." Captain Whirlwind  muttered.  "They wouldn't hurt their own and ruin their chance to escape."

"Look. It's already done." I sighed in annoyance. "If I was wrong, I'd find the kid myself. He gave me his name."

Hydron huffed and walked away. I was confident in my decision, but I knew there was a chance that what I did meant nothing to the kid.