Big City Hero UNOFFICIAL BOOK TWO

Chapter Thirty-Four: Lights Out.

Charlie's P.O.V:

I was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the clock on the wall. My knees were bouncing with impatience. When the time changed to 10:06 A.M. I looked down at my watch and waited to see the message that Coal was back flash on the screen.

10:07 A.M. One whole month later. One whole long month later and there is no sign of him.

There was no mistaking the tension that was hanging in the air. Everyone at the Board was waiting expectantly for him to come back, or for news or something to happen, but it was like the S.A.V.D. was just a dream.

"Charlie," mom said, walking into the kitchen and finding me still staring at the clock. "It's your day off, why spend it watching the clock?" She sat down next to me and put her hand on my arm. "Why not go out and do something?"

"Do what?" I asked, facing her and shrugging. "I don't have my best friend around to go do something with. All I want to do is sit here and wait for him to come back."

Mom sighed and took her hand away. It was written on her face, what she wanted to say but couldn't bring herself to speak. She thinks that he's dead, or that he's never coming back. "Charlie..."

"Actually, I just remembered I need to go check something out, catch you later." I jumped to my feet and bolted out of the house, not wanting to hear her tell me that Coal wasn't coming back.

It was the first week of August now, and if it were a year ago, I'd be dreading going back to school, but now I'm dreading if mom is right. I sighed loudly and stuffed my hands into my pockets, eventually finding my way to Coal's old brick building. It's called the Brickland Building, but pretty much everyone forgot that it even had a name. It's just rundown that way.

I stood on the edge of the roof and looked out at King City. "Where are you?"

The silence was my answer, and eventually, I flew off the building and went to HQ. It may be my day off, but there was so much paperwork to go through, I was behind by a week on reports, and the pile was only growing, as was my headache.

I flew through Coal's secret entrance that went straight into his office. The computer registered my arrival with a small beep, turning on and coming to life. Anyone else here at HQ got a notification that I had arrived, just like I would get notified whenever anyone comes in.

Just as I sat down behind Coal's desk, the door opened and in popped Ben. "Hey, Glitch. Working overtime?"

I stared at the pile of papers that seemed to have grown from the last time I saw it. "I'm so behind; it's not even funny."

Ben laughed and shrugged. "You'll get the hang of it soon. Anyway, I'll be in-" There was an ear-piercingly loud boom just then that interrupted Ben, it shook the entire building, making things fall over and smash on the floor.

I slammed my hands over my ears and winced as car alarms, babies, dogs and breaking glass blared at the highest volume. Dust rained down from the ceiling and shouts came from all around.

"Earthquake?" Ben yelled over the noise, his own hands covering his ears.

I shook my head and got up quickly, dropping my hands from my head and racing out of my office. I scanned the main floor to see if anyone was hurt but other than a few computers on the ground, the few people here looked fine, but my super hearing told me that was far from the case outside.