A Hero's War

Chapter 2

She held tight to him as they flew through the air, miles away from the large city. As they passed over lakes and forests she could only wonder where they were going. Not a single living soul knew exactly where this masked hero called home. As she admired the amazing view from the unimaginable height she realized they were closing in on the 8 Mountains that separated Noctrus from the large ocean to the west. They quickly advanced on the fifth and tallest mountain, Genesis. As they approached Genesis she saw a rather large cave. The hero landed just outside of the cave and let her down. She turned around and looked over the horizon. Porcupine stood in the cave entrance and waited for her. Eventually she turned and smiled at him then followed him into the cave. He led her deep into the cave until they couldn't see two feet in front of them. They continued to walk, then all of a sudden he stopped. She bumped into him and almost fell over. Porcupine felt around on the wall until he found a small hole that seemed completely natural. He held his palm against it and extended a quill.

One by one lights flashed on in front of them, revealing an endless drop from a cliff at their feet followed by a ginormous cavern about a 1/3 the size of the mountain. The cavern was filled with a complicated system of elevators, platforms, and railings. The girl looked at the cavern in awe. He smiled at the look on her face and pulled the quill out of the hole.

"How did you do all this?" she asked him.

"Well it's easy when you can make steal beams protrude from your body," He said with a chuckle. She stood there, silent, admiring what he alone has done.

"Well let's head down." He said as he stepped off the cliff. She gasped in fear, expecting him to fall. But he didn't. He walked on the air as if down a ramp. He realized she wasn't following and turned to look at her. He walked back up and held out his hand.

"Come on." He said with a gentle smile. She took his hand and carefully stepped into the air. She felt her foot meet what felt like metal. She brought her other foot down and stood on nothing.

"What most people don't know is that I can change the color of my quills," he told her as they walked down. "It took a while to find the right shade."

As she looked at her feet she realized that there was something weird about the air she was walking on. Slowly her eyes adjusted to it and she could clearly see the bridge of quills that he had made. Once they reached the end of the bridge she released his hand and took another look around. She was endlessly fascinated by all that he had done.

He walked over to a rather complicated looking computer and started to work. She looked at him, wondering what he was doing. She walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. Strange symbols and shapes she didn't recognize flew across the screen as his fingers danced on the keyboard.

As she watched the screen, suddenly he stopped. He pressed his palm against a small hole like the one that activated the power. The cave began to shift and change, platforms lowered and new platforms rose. A short time later the entire place was different.

"This is the training program," he said as his hand gestured around the entire cavern. The platforms held all kinds of training equipment from dummies to obstacle courses to holographic displays. "This is where I'll help you control your powers, and where we'll learn to act as a team. That is, if you'd do me the pleasure of being my partner?"

She was at a loss for words. She didn't even know that she had any powers until a couple hours ago. "Um, yeah. I guess so," she said with a small smile.

"Great! And you know, I never asked your name," He said with a small smile.

"Oh, it's Emma." She said with a shy smile. He returned the smile as he pulled off his mask.

"Well Emma, you can call me James," he said with a smile. "Now, let's get to work."