Hero Types

Chapter 7

If it had been Mickey's intention to stay away from the scary guy with the mask, it didn't really work out for him.
They were reporting to General Parks to take care of an environmentally-conscious tree-hugger. As in, an apparently homeless man who was bringing trees to life and sicking them on passerby who smoked or littered. While Kit agreed that his heart seemed to be in the right place, he really wasn't all that sane and he needed to be taken care of.
Mickey met them there.
Mardie had taken a vacation. She had lost her powers, as far as they all knew, and that was a tough thing to go through. She had been in a few times to say hi, but for the most part they were updated on her life by Lucas, who kept tabs on her at all times. But it was probably good for Benji anyway.
The mission didn't require any lock picking, as far as they knew, but an extra pair of hands was always useful. That pair just happened to be half-mechanical.
His car looked like a piece of junk, which was about as much as she'd expected. He was late. They stood around, shivering a bit in the early October air, till his headlights flickered off and his engine stopped gasping, and he strolled casually across the flat with a wave in greeting.
"You're a sorry sight," he remarked upon seeing their miserable faces, but he quickly copied their positions and shoved his hands under his own armpits. "Now who is this fellow?"
"He's running around bringing trees to life," Lucas said.
"Come again?"
"Have you ever seen Lord of the Rings?" he asked.
"Read it."
"So something like that."
"Blimey. And, ah..." he played with his hoodie's drawstrings, covering up his forehead. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Anything you can," Lucas said.
"Sacrifice yourself for the greater good," Kit said. He raised an eyebrow at her. Lucas sighed.
"Come on." He gestured down the path. "Let's go, guys."
Mickey automatically fell even with her behind Lucas. He continued pulling on his drawstrings, watching her curiously.
"Now," he said, "I thought we'd made good back there."
"For, like, five minutes." She pulled her own hood up, rubbing her hands together. Their breath curled up in wisps of steam.
"Oof."
"You robbed a place last week!"
"Didn't take much, did I?"
"Oh, sure, and the Warlock only murdered a couple of people." He snorted, unperterbed. She growled in frustration and fell silent, thinking. He drew his hood shut over his nose and pried it back open.
"You always do that," she said at last.
"This? My bloody face's freezing—"
"Why can't you just pick a side? You're not...you're not bad enough to be bad," she said, "but you're not good enough to be good."
"Isn't that most people though?"
"Most people don't rob jewelry stores in their free time!"
He chuckled. That was another thing that bothered her. He would just laugh off whatever point she made. Even if he saw her point, he would still be amused at himself. You couldn't ever win with Mickey.
She stopped trying to talk to him.
"Do you hear a crunching?" she asked after a bit.
"That would be the trees," Lucas agreed. They were in the center of the green, empty, dark, and wet with dew. There was rustling from the corners, the edges, of the park, closer to them than the sound of traffic.
Kit breathed on her hands to warm them up. Lucas drew his sword. Mickey's arm clicked and whirred, and he examined the cannon that it formed. Kit took a few steps away to be safe.
The trees were fast.
They ran on all four—or, rather, eight and a hundred—branches, ripping at the turf as they barreled toward them. They made a low groaning noise as they ran, that of chipping wood and damaged foliage.
"Here they come!" Lucas cried. Not because they couldn't see, but because it was obligatory for him as the assigned leader of their group.
A bolt of lightning struck down the one coming from Kit's right. Another came from her left and she turned to put up a shield, but a ball of blue light embedded itself in its bark and exploded. A small cloud of ash rose into the sky. She looked at Mickey, whose cannon was glowing. He shrugged.
"Go big or go home, right?"
"Watch out!"
She ducked the branch that whizzed over her head. Lucas impaled a thick root with his sword and sent a volt of electricity through the tree. It smoked and its leaves caught aflame. There was a bang to her back, and another one exploded.
"Where's the guy?" she shouted.
"Kit—duck—" Mickey pushed her down and Lucas sliced off the branch that had nearly impaled her.
"There can't be that many more," Lucas said, just as one creaked and keeled over on them.
Kit threw up a shield, and they flattened themselves beneath it. She strained under the weight while the branches flattened on the golden light and the leaves fizzled away. Another tree fell on top of that one, and she gasped.
"Kit, hang in there—"
"Here," Mickey got into a crouch. He looked at Lucas. "You run. On three, I'll push her out and we'll roll."
         He nodded.
"What?! No—"
"Three!"
The shield broke. Mickey didn't so much push her as jerk her off the face of the planet for a minute. Branches scratched her face. She hit the ground hard, right before she hit him, and that happened a couple more times. They rolled down a hill.
The world finally stopped spinning, and he was crushing her. She winced and struggled, and he picked himself up on one arm and blinked dazedly around.
"That was fun. Are you all right?"
"I was," she wheezed, "until you landed on me."
She pushed on him till he rolled off, chuckling, and then she staggered up the hill to help Lucas, stumbling as she went.
"Lucas, hold on, I'm..."
"It's all good," he promised. His hair was on end, though it always was after he had to channel. He finished wrapping a vine around the gray-bearded man's hands and stood up, dusting off his own. "He was the only one left after the shield broke. Nice work, by the way, very impressive. You might be due for a raise."
"You don't pay me."
"Ah, is that him?" Mickey appeared. She huffed and crossed her arms. He nodded. "So...what now? You really gonna send him to prison? Seems a bit harsh."
"Not prison," Lucas said, watching the man, who was whimpering quietly. "A hospital."
"Right," he said, nodding, and he elbowed Kit, which made her jump. "See? I can be good."
"When you're not robbing stores."
"Well, now you're just being picky."
She growled. "I hate you so much."
"But how much exactly?"
She rolled her eyes and walked away. She waited outside Lucas's car till he unlocked it and she could get in. Mickey rapped on the window before they pulled out. He mouthed, 'See you later,' and winked, and Kit told Lucas to run over his foot. He didn't, of course.
She watched the streetlights and apartment complexes flicker past, the mark her nose made while her breath fogged up the window.
"You don't have to hate him," Lucas said, "just because you did four years ago."
"You're right," she said. "I hate him because he's a piece of shit, and I don't want to work with him."
He was quiet. She watched the murky sky and wondered if it was going to rain. It was a good night for rain. A better night for cake. She hoped there would still be some left when she got home.