Blog of a Teenage Superhero

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Reunion

It would have been a massacre.

Comet protects her daughter. It's what she knows best and all she can think to do as the forest is lashed with gunfire. Percy has to admit, this getting shoved to the ground and choking on facefuls of grass and gravel is getting old. She screams as the shots ring out, the sound filling her with such terror, such terrible thoughts about the death of Kai, and of Chip, she has not time to fear for herself. Her mother squeezes her, rolling under a parked van for cover. The gunman aims above her mother's head, afraid, Percy realizes, coccooned against her mother in the gravel. In the dark, their chins just touching the loose car parts. Cold and wet, the two of them, hearts pounding.

While Percy wriggles out of her mother's shielding arms, all Comet can think about is her daughter. She didn't mean to get her into this mess. How could everything go so wrong?

"Kaito?"

Kai lies groaning on his stomach, breathing shallow, hands bound behind his back with the sleeves of his suit jacket. His eyes are wide and wild with fear. Percy tries to smile at him, wants him to know everything will be okay. But she can't because it won't. The chipped muzzle of the gun is still pressed against his temple, and she doesn't want to look. The man is frozen, eying the kid as his thumb trembles over the trigger. Percy glances away, mute with terror. In case... in case...

"An unarmed kid." Through the chaos, Monet's hero voice reverberates like a thunder clap. "Really. I'm getting sick of telling people to pick on someone their own size." A flash of black cape whipping in the rain. A boom of thunder that ripples through the hillside. Lightning strikes, illuminating a sweaty Monet in a slick black mask. She launches upon the spooked man. Her heel connects with the hilt of the gun, the weapon flying with the snap of the man's elbow. He screams, claws, cries. But the hero pummels him with ruthless efficiency. Three sets of four punches in nine seconds, all before he even hits the ground. And once he does, the man stills, limp between her knees. Monet pats him on the head, pockets his gun, and crouches beside Kai.

"Are you hurt?" she asks. "Are you hurt?"

Kai shivers, gasping like a beached fish. Sweat and tears streak his face. He shakes his head as Monet unties him, pulling him into a crushing hug. He gasps, cries. "Finn," he says, voice muffled into her bloody black spandex. "They have Finn." 

Monet pets his hair, cooing at him like a mother dove. "It's alright, alright, we'll make it alright." Though she's less than sure, and the thought of Finn being taken is like a knife twisting in her gut. But the thing about being a leader, a hero, is that sometimes you gotta lie. So she rubs the back of his neck until his crying eases.

The other man comes, finishing his firing in the trees, but Comet incapacitates him with efficient brutality. Kicks his feet out from under him. Rolls out from under the van. Pounces on him and has him asleep via a rear naked choked in three seconds. The man isn't even given enough time to scream.

Monet lifts her head from Kai's jacket, still running her fingers through his hair as he cries silently. "Good to go?" she asks Comet, slurring through a mouth full of blood.

"Yes," Comet responds, rubbing her raw knuckles on the legs of her costume. She frowns at the red scales, but then she lifts her head and smiles at the novice hero, the one who risked everything to save her daughter. "Thank you."

Kai squirms, the smell of Finn's cheap cologne hanging in the cold air like a phantom. "Max," he starts, his breathing still ragged and his hands still trembling from the near miss of the reaper's blade. "Max has Finn. We have to save Finn. Monet, your fake boyfriend is crazy!"

Percy slithers out from under the vehicle while Monet collects her breath, clutching her mask as if wondering if her real identity was always so obvious. Percy spits pebbles, grit burning the back of her throat. Monet shakes her head, her eyes narrowing and her fists curling in the sleeves of Kai's jacket before she finally releases him.

"Well, he isn't going to have him for long." The hero brushes grit off her pants, draws her knee to her chest, and kicks open the rusty door of one of the vans. It's a beautiful vehicle, chestnut paneling, handsewn seats. She strokes the leather appreciatively before spinning back on her heels, still woozy, wrenching the back door open.

A woman in a torn green mask topples out with a muffled shriek. "Adder!" cries Comet. Happy tears burst down her face. She crushes the tied-up colleague to her chest in a giant hug, and the small black-haired woman glares until she's freed. Monet pays no mind to the rescued idol, who cusses and flips the crux at the sky. "Damn...Masquerade...I'll kill him!" Instead, the teen brushes back her bushy waves and creeps deeper into the dark van, gasping with relief at the familiar faces. "Yellow Star? Black Ice? Blue Rapids!" The names fly off her tongue like she's calling role. And she can't help smiling like an idiot. All five accounted for.

The heroes blush. Ice beams and Rapids sighs contently. Star winks, tries to wave with his hands comprised, then gives up and lolls his head against the aluminum with a muffled laugh or groan. Comet and Percy jump up into the van, seeing to the untying of the heroes, like a mother-daughter bonding experience. Monet just stands there for a second, head ducked, hardly breathing. All her heroes in one place. But she doesn't time for fainting or asking for autographs from these Herculean specimen in their ripped spandex. She doesn't even have enough time to stare. She wets her fingers, wordlessly jumps out the back, and clamors into the driver's seat in one clumsy sweep.

Kai hops into the passenger side, face in his hands. Shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Monet pats him, blinking back her own set of tears. But it's okay. She'll save Finn. Finn is resourceful anyway, he can keep himself alive long enough to be rescued. Right?

 Percy leans over the glove compartment, so close she places a hand on Monet's knee. The touch warms Monet, makes her focus on the task ahead. "Where'd he take him, Kai?" the hero asks, the mask hanging low on her face that she doesn't bother to fix. In the back, the heroes are crying and laughing and cussing. It takes maybe three minutes for them to cycle through all the emotions usually associated with a rescue. The sobbing laughter, the hugging, some possible kissing that Monet almost glances back to watch for inspiration for her next fan-fiction. But she knows Finn comes first. And if—when—she rescues him, he'll never hear the end of it.

Kai crooks a shaking finger over Monet's shoulder, pointing above a copse of dark, craggly trees. The word 'hostage' slips through the gaggle of heroes, and they still. No more kissing. No more crying. These weakened color-coded warriors ready themselves for battle, because that's who they are. Heroes. Willing to fight and die for one kid, even after the ordeal they've been put through and just rescued from minutes ago. It makes Monet grateful, shows her see everything she can become if she just survives this. If she just saves him.

Monet pats the wheel of the idling vehicle. Max could, technically, be anywhere by now. But she has a hunch he'd be closer, somewhere where he could watch the actions he set into motion. And she knows just the place. Percy gives her a comforting squeeze and she looks up at Kai for guidance. He nods curtly, brushing away his dried tears.

She revs the engine and the van crashes through the wood.