When Heroes Rise

Bella

I sat on my bed with my IPad while my parents talked to one of their friends in the living room. I was thinking about the upcoming meeting. Would they help us? It was hard to belive, but I hoped. I was running through all possible senarios in my head in an attempt to plan for anything. Then a knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts.

"Come in!" I called

Wren opened the door. Her room was right next to mine, I guess she just woke up. Ever since the accident, she'd been sleeping until almost noon.

"Hey," She said sleepily. She walked over to me, favoring her tender right side. "Where is everybody?"

"Angie and Rose went to find Angel, who's sulking."

"Sulking?"

"Yeah, you weren't awake when I told everybody." I said. "We're having a few friends over."

Wren rose one of her eyebrows. "She's sulking about having friends over."

I looked down. "Um... They're not exactly... They're the Defenders."

"What?!" Wren shouted. "You know we can't work together!"

"Well, you need to tr-"

They're the enemy!"

"More than E.R.R-"

How could you-"

"We can't do this on our own!" I leapt up. Wren looked at me, startled. I never raise my voice, but everybody, especially Angel, had been yelling at me that day. I had reached my breaking point. "If you think that five teenage girls can defeat a thousand soldiers, not to mention the woman that did this," I gestured to her side. "Then you're sadly mistaken. This is too big a job for us. We need help."

"But why our mortal enemies?" Wren said, calmer this time.

"They defeated you, didn't they? If all of us join together, we can destroy Erika once and for all, you can sweep up your damaged pride later."

Wren sighed. "So, we're having a war council?"

I giggled. "Essentially, yes. Let's go downstairs and wait for everyone."

I started for the door.

"Wait." Wren said.

I turned to face her. She was looking down, like she was embarrassed.

"Yes?"

She sighed, then looked up. "Don't tell them."

"Don't tell them what?"

"About my powers."

"Wren-"

"Please. I don't want to seem weak. We don't know of they'll actually go with it, anyway. I want to make sure they're trustworthy."

"They have a right to know about E.R.R. We can't hold back information that important. I made that mistake once, and look what happened!"

"Then tell them, just don't say I lost my powers."

"Wren, you have to put aside your pride. The only way we can defeat E.R.R. is if we understand each other. The fact that you're mortal now is a huge part of you. You need to be prot-" I cut myself off. She hated being reminded that she wasn't as strong as she normally was.

"What?" She snapped. "Protected?"

"Wren, no, I just-"

"I'm still strong! The fact that I'm still fighting proves it all. I don't need protection, I can fight just as well as I always have!"