When Heroes Rise

Angel

I kicked the dummy in the chest and slashed the knife across its throat. I dropped onto one knee and rolled to the right. When I came up, I threw it at the target. It hit the middle of the bull's eye and stuck but I was still unsatisfied.

We had lost the fight to a mob of untrained losers - what did they call themselves again? Oh yeah, the defenders. Lame, much?

I took my anger out on the punching bag, still very angry. But to be honest, Wren was barely trained and those Supers, no matter how lame, had us outnumbered 5 to 2. Swish! I pulled a throwing star out of my sleeve and threw it to cut the rope holding the punching bag to the celling.

I stopped and looked at the damage I had done. The Lair was completely messed up. Weapons were thrown all over the place. I picked up my bottle of Gatorade and chugged it down. Wiping my mouth on my sleeve, I slowly put the room together.

Wren stomped downstairs and snatched up an ivory bow.

"Hey! I just cleaned that up!" I snapped.

She scowled at me. "You told me to train. So I'm going to train!"

"By train, I meant your powers!" I snatched the bow back and gently placed it back into the shelves. "The Dark Side is extremely powerful and always gets their way. If you can't control your powers to push them out of the way ERR will kill them!"

Suddenly a beeping sound filled the Lair. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"What's that?" Wren picked up the bow again and a quiver, looking around wildly.

"The Dark Side leader's calling, ERR. We'll finish this conversation later." I shot Wren a venomous glare. "Remember not to offend her. Don't talk about Angie and don't make her mad. On second thought, leave the talking to me."

Wren silently nodded.

"ERR would like to video chat with you. Accept?" A robotic voice echoed around the room as a screen lowered slowly in front of the wall.

I cleared my throat. "Accept."

ERR appeared on screen. She was sitting in a chair in front of a mahogany wood desk. Her pale hands played with a solid gold knife while her face was cloaked by shadows.

I knelt onto one knee and bowed my head in a polite gesture. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw that Wren was mimicking me.

"Both of you rise." Her voice was cold and sharp like a sword, "Angel, who is that girl?"

"Wren. She's a Super. I found her on the streets. She singlehandedly killed all the Assassins."

"That's impressive." ERR fiddled with the knife nearly chopping off one of her fingers. She swore quietly under here breath and pushed the blade away.

"Very." I agree.

"So how was the mission yesterday?"

I bowed my head down. "Failed."

"What?" Her voice became a snarl as her hands reflexively gripped her blade and pulled it back towards her. Blood trickled down onto the desk. "Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say fail?"

"Yes. Things didn't go as planned." I sneaked a glance up to the screen.

"Enlighten me," she snarled.

"There was a group of Supers. They called themselves The Defenders. They outnumbered us five to two and overwhelmed us.

"Hmm." ERR turned the blade over in her hand. I could see the blood that ran down the knife and her hands. "Destroy this threat. Your new mission is to find them and get rid of them. Blow up their headquarters. Exterminate them. Angel, that means kill. A simple memory wipe won't do. You are my most trusted apprentice. Do not fail me." ERR ended the chat at that.