The Trick to Falling in Style

Freedom

By the time he made it to the community college, most of his anger had fizzled out. He felt a cold emptiness settling down in his heart where the fire of his rage used to burn. He could claim to hate the other heroes with every single one of his breaths, but there would always be some part of him that missed his friends. He wanted to be at Nemesis and the Blade for teaming up and plotting behind his back, but could he blame them? There were several things that he had done behind their backs for the same exact reason; they would stop him if they knew everything he was planning on doing. On a similar thought, he had some respect for Ender and Kamikaze. They had given him the information he wanted from them, after all.

Regardless, they weren't his friends anymore. He had moved on. He had been moved on for a long time already. He had learned how to live by himself and for himself. He was not the selfless vigilante he used to be. He was now a selfish teenager who was trying desperately to hang onto the job he had. All the other heroes- the ones who had proper licenses- needed to move on from him. They had responsibilities and lives outside of him that he wouldn't let them throw away for no good reason. They each had a district that they had sworn to protect. Vermillion's vow to protect Logstedshire was now as empty as his heart.

"Are you coming inside or freezing to death out there?" Beau said. Vermillion startled to attention. He hadn't realized that he had arrived at the college. Beau had the window open, leaning outside of it on her arms. She wasn't looking at Vermillion. Her gaze traveled upward all the way to the stars that shone in Logstedshire's night sky. While the other districts had light pollution that hid the stars, Logstedshire didn't have enough light to completely obscure the brighter stars. It could have been seen as something poetic, but Vermillion had never thought about it past the basic fact.

"I'm coming in. It's cold as fuck out here," Vermillion said, rolling into the room. He landed on his back, spreading his limbs out. There wasn't enough room for him to completely stretch out, his limbs twisting and folding in a way that would surely make him ache later. Beau shut her window. She stepped over Vermillion's arm to lean down at his side. She raised an eyebrow at him. Vermillion lifted the papers towards her. "Here."

Beau took the papers, falling onto her butt as she read the documents. Vermillion didn't look at her. He stared up at her roof, counting the small indents that formed shadowy patterns because of the lamplight. Even though his eyes were pinned to the ceiling, his mind began to spin the hands of his internal clock backwards. When the hands stopped, he was in another time period all together.

This was a couple years back. Vermillion heard rumors about the Pit being operated in a factory that was facing bankruptcy soon. He assumed that the owner of the factory was selling time at his factory in order to have enough money to pay off his debts. Every night, the Pit would meet at the factory, postponing the company's imminent bankruptcy. Vermillion made sure that all his weapons were secure. He mainly used knives and daggers, but he had recently acquired an airsoft gun that looked like the real deal for threatening purposes. He didn't really need a gun since his powers helped him shoot far larger and sharper projectiles than bullets, but he knew that people like the Pit betters only responded to violence they understood. They knew a gun could kill them. His reputation wasn't prominent enough for his own skills to scare the betters.

Vermillion had walked inside like a regular person. No one recognized him, and if they did, he wasn't a threat to them. To those that knew his name, he was nothing more than a kid playing hero. Vermillion decided long ago that he would let his actions prove them wrong. He didn't need the sick criminals that placed bets on which child would win a fight to think highly of him. He didn't become a hero for recognition. He did it to save people like the children of the Pit. The people who were being forced to fight each other for their own safety. Vermillion knew a thing or two about that.