Just For One Day

16

     We stood in awkward silence at the bus stop a few blocks down from my apartment. It was weird not being able to use my super speed; I was accustomed to travelling quickly my destinations. Meteor and I didn't go many places together, and even when we went to the diner we would take his car. Teravolt didn't have a car, or a moped, or even a bike, and once again I cursed myself for allowing my own bike to remain without tires. At least we wouldn't have had to wait for the bus.

     I tapped my foot absentmindedly. Teravolt coughed. Passersby looked us up and down, pretended they hadn't seen us, and kept on walking.

     "Why are they all ignoring us?" Teravolt asked. "You'd think that we're weirdos or something."

     "A lot of people are still afraid of metahumans," I said. "Especially those of us that wear the suits."

     "From that thing with that guy attacking the U.N.?"

     The Amaranthine, he called himself. He was probably the most powerful metahuman the world had ever seen. He left a wake of carnage across the United States on his way to hold the members of the U.N. hostage at their summit and killed every superhero who tried to stop him. I don't remember how they got him in the end, but he got close enough to make a lot of powerful people with access to nuclear weapons very nervous. He also destroyed the morale of the superhero community for a good twenty years, at least. There was a period of time in there where you could count the number of active suits on the fingers of a fire cracker enthusiast's hand. A lot of people still associated metahumans with the Amaranthine.

     "Yep," I said.

     "But that was, like, fifty years ago."

     "He did a lot of damage and killed a lot of people. Memories take a long time to heal."

     As if to illustrate my point, we watched as an old woman walked to the bench next to us, noticed us standing there, and then not-so-subtly changed course and crossed the street.

     "Huh," said Teravolt.

     The bus pulled up with a squeal and hiss of the brakes, and we paid the fare and boarded. I could feel the eyes on us as we headed for the empty seats toward the back. A few of the watching faces held awe, some held slight fear, but almost all of them had an element of uncomfortableness. We weren't well known as heroes, and as far as the passengers were concerned we could be dangerous or unstable. The nervous silence was palpable in the cramped bus as we headed to the docks, where Valerie had said she and DeLuge had left Ranvier's hideout.

     Nova city abuts directly with the pacific ocean, so an entire side of the city consists of docks, piers, wharfs, and cliffs overlooking the sea. This provided a bustling business of seafood, international trade, and of course, various kinds of smuggling. Guns, drugs, maybe even office supplies. It's part of the reason that there's such a need for superheroes in Nova. Not all of those smugglers are regular humans.

     "I should get some new boots," said Teravolt.

     I looked over at her, and then down at the boots that she had on. They looked like something you would wear to a death metal concert; with platform soles and big skull shaped buckles.

     "Yeah, probably," I said.

     "I was thinking something with high heels. That would look really badass." She shuffled her feet on the bus's floor.

     I looked toward the front of the bus again. "I knew someone who wore high heeled boots into battle."

     "I bet she looked cool."