The Parallax Effect

Chapter Four: I'm NOT Mad (Yes I Am)

August 10th, 4:37 pm

Valon Castellanos

No matter how hard Valon hit the punching bag in front of him, he couldn't get him out of his head. It'd been a full week!

That grin and the way his eyes glinted when he looked at Valon; it just made him shudder. He was familiar. Valon knew he had seen him somewhere before, but for the life of him, he could not tell from where.

"'Cute' what is that supposed to mean? I'm not cute!" He punctuated the last word with a hit hard enough to split his already bruised knuckles. He sighed, frustrated not only at himself, but at the man that had caused him to be so careless. He unwrapped his hands and dropped the wraps to the floor before rubbing his face with his sweat-covered hands.

Walking over to the wall near the elevator, he pressed a black button, which gave him access to the intercom in the main office. "Main office, this is Valon in training room 3, I'm done in here, send someone up to clean it when you get the chance."

"We'll have staff sent up pretty soon, sir."

"All right, sounds good."

Valon went over to the bench he'd set his stuff on. Sitting down, he took his water bottle, squeezing some water into his parched mouth. He slicked his hair back out of his face and grabbed a towel sitting on the bench, and dried his face off before leaning back against the white wall and closing his eyes.

Why am I so upset about this? He's just Ben's older brother. I'm probably going to meet him in the future, so I should get used to him. I can't be weird every time I see him.

The elevator doors opened as a janitor walked in with a cart full of cleaning supplies. Keeping their head down, they went over to the equipment and started wiping it down without a word to Valon.

This wasn't unusual though, most of the cleaning staff tried to stay out of the hero's way, tending to be more awed in his presence than anything else. Valon sat there and watched the janitor in silence. He stood up and walked to a door leading to stairs as the staff finished up. They left, leaving Valon with a "thank you" on his tongue and his own thoughts.

His phone started ringing wildly as the lights in the room turned red.

Shit.

He slammed the door and sprinted up to his floor. After changing into his hero costume, putting on his mask, and grabbing one of his staffs and a pistol from their respective safes, he bolted down the same stairs and into a meeting room in the lobby of their building. Maeve-who had returned from her mission recently-Quincy, and Sei, were all waiting for him.

"Where's Chad? He should be down here by now."

Sei shrugged, looking to Maeve. "I'm not sure he's coming down. He's been pouting in his room since we returned."

Valon rolled his eyes, "Doesn't matter at the moment. What's happening?"

Quincy spoke up, "There's a bank robbery in progress. It's Parallax again. They have probably seventy-five hostages held at gunpoint, there have already been multiple shots fired, but it's inconclusive if there are any injuries or deaths. I think they're waiting for us. The police are on their way. Who're we sending."

As they finished their sentence, Ben burst in, "What'd I miss?" He was slightly out of breath.

"Nothing much. We're deciding who's going to take care of things. You are not. Go back upstairs and rest."

Ben glared at Valon. "I told you I can go on missions now. I'm healed."

"The doctor said two weeks."

"No, he said a few days, or maybe-"