Hopelessly Heroic (Rewritten)

eight

The next hero meeting was decidedly worse. 

Usually, June liked to stay quiet and do more observing than talking. This time, however, the conversation kept seeming to slip back to her. It seemed like the universe wanted to keep putting her on the spot. 

It had started off discussing all the known villains in the area and what their powers were. They did this often to make sure everything was fresh in their minds and they knew what all the villain's weaknesses were, and which hero would be most effective against which villain based on powers and physical combat techniques. 

June, of course, was always matched up with Flame. Although they had yet to come face-to-face in one of the villain's sporadic attacks, it was implied that June would obviously fight Flame, no questions asked. Flame was known for not letting anyone close enough to touch her, keeping them at a safe distance by burning them so they couldn't advance. June was the only one who could get passed her fire.

When it was brought up, though, Lilypad took the conversation in a different direction. 

"She hasn't been very active recently. I think she's at her breaking point, which is the perfect time for us to jump in."

As soon as Flame was mentioned, June couldn't stop thinking about her and the interactions they had. A moment later, Mind Mania snapped her head to stare at her, wide eyed. June forced herself to think of something else. She didn't need anyone knowing that she was gallivanting around with a villain. Of course, the more she tried not to think about Flame, the harder it became.

"On the contrary, I think her absence means she's planning something big. She's never taken a week off before, and given the odd behaviour, I think we have to assume the worst." The sheriff was saying.

Mind Mania was under oath. She couldn't disclose anything she heard in anyone's thoughts with anybody. Period. But, would that still matter if she was potentially saving lives? June knew from an outsiders point of view, it probably looked like she was planning to switch sides. If Mind Mania told the police that June was secretly working with the enemy, would they care about punishing her? Or would they instead thank her for helping them stop June before it was too late.

"Isn't that more reason to try to move in on her as soon as possible?" Lily asked, clearly frustrated that nobody was putting her plan into action.

"Maybe she's just tired," June said, swallowing loudly. She didn't want to sound like she was defending Flame, but she also didn't want them to up their game and track her down. 

Lily looked at her incredulously, sharing a look of disbelief with one of the other heroes, who just shrugged. "If we don't get tired, they don't get tired."

That made no sense to June, because she was tired all the time. Maybe Lily had a secret second power that kept her alert at all hours of the day, but June sure didn't. 

That conversation soon fizzled with the promise of talking about it more at the next meeting if Flame still hadn't made another attack. June forced herself to sing multiple songs in her head instead of debating whether or not to tell Flame about this new development, because that would just be more fuel for Mind Mania.

They started talking about how the villains had a healer on their side, and they didn't. Zephyr mentioned that water was useful in healing and asked June if her water could heal, but she shook her head.

"It soothes burns and stops blood, like all water, but that's it."

"Did you cut your hair?" Lily cut in, staring at the one shorter strand of June's hair that stuck out oddly in her ponytail.