Purple Phoenix

Chapter Fifteen

At home, the news on TV said the exact same thing, supporting the SCU and completely disregarding all the hard work the heroes had done to keep the city safe. They were already discussing how long it would be to take off the supers out of play. Even me, a villain, recognized how wrong this was. That wasn't my problem, though. My problem was that if they found the heroes, they would definitely find me. As soon as they switched over to talking about the continued disappearance of my parents, I shut off the TV.

It was 8 pm, so I decided to give Windrider a call about why they didn't show up this morning at the mall to save me. I clicked on his contact and hit call.

After two rings, Windrider picked up. "Phoenix? Is something wrong?" He sounded panicked. How odd.

"No, everything's fine. I wanted to check in with you guys." I shuffled through my bag, looking for my suit.

"About what?"

Fishing it out, I said, "There was an attack in the mall today, if you can even call it that." It was a scuffle, at most. Kratos could really have done a number on the mall, but he didn't. Not only did he do minimal damage, but he also surrendered. I still didn't understand his actions.

"So I've heard." Windrider sounded glum and annoyed.

"So... why weren't you there?" I threw my suit along with my mask onto my bed.

He paused for a moment, contemplating his answer. "The police kept it from us."

"What do you mean? How can they keep it from you?" I'm sure the supers listened to the police radios, but the police can't just stop using them, can they?

"We're going to talk more about it later. Probably tomorrow. But we think it was planned to happen in a way that we wouldn't know about it until it would be over."

"Who would do this?" I walked to the kitchen and took the cereal out. I was hungry after the encounter and hadn't eaten yet since my cereal bar.

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

I grabbed a spoon and a bowl. "My money's on Steve." He definitely had something to do, especially with his dream team. He wanted to show the world how wonderful and awesome he was.

"Why do you keep calling him Steve?"

I waved my spoon in the air. "That's his name, right?" Steve Brandt.

"Yeah, I guess so. People usually refer to him as Mr. Brandt, Prime Minister, or just Brandt. Nobody calls him Steve." He let out a small chuckle, finding it weird how I talked about Steve in a first-name-basis.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Saying Mr. Brandt or something gives him respect, but I don't respect him, so I call him Steve."

I could tell he was smiling. "Okay, Phoenix."

"If we're talking about names already, why do you call me Phoenix, not Purple Phoenix?" I crossed my arms. It didn't bother me that he called me just Phoenix; I just wanted to bug him.

"Why do you call me Windy?" He still was mad about that?

"Touche," With a smile on my lips, I added, "Windy."

Windrider complained, "And Phoenix isn't even that bad. It's just a short cut. Windy is much much worse and it's so-"

"Oh no." I cut his tirade off as I grimaced at the near-empty bag of cereal.

"What? What is it?"

"I'm nearly out of cereal." I desperately needed to refill my food supply. I had the money; I was merely lazy. Buying food required me going out on an errand.

"Oh for god's sake, Phoenix. Are you seriously eating cereal at 8 o'clock? One hour before the banquet?"

"No?" I said through a mouth full. "Okay, what else should I eat? Real, healthy food? Who do you think I am?" Not only did that mean I would have to let go of sugar, but it also meant more money because healthy food always costs more.

"Alright, Phoenix. You do you." I knew he was rolling his eyes at me. "You ready for tonight?"

"Mmmhm." I hummed, chewing on my cereal. I swallowed and asked, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. I have a feeling something bad is going to happen."

I added more milk to my bowl. "Like what? Me burning down the whole building or something?" My mouth quirked up again.

"Yeah. We're going to try first not burning down the whole thing. Only burn it down as a last resort."

"You got it." I used the bowl as a cup and drank the rest of milk. I put the dish in the sink, leaving it for later to be cleaned. "How far is the banquet from here?"

"Walking? We'll never arrive in time. Flying? Maybe thirty minutes." Thirty minutes wasn't too bad. As long as I wore my suit, I would be protected from the cold breeze.

I went back to my bedroom. "How are you guys going?"

"Light Shine, Poseidon, and Spectre are driving, so they're getting ready right now. Animalia and I are flying. Oh, I have a question. How long can you fly for?"

"I don't know. I've never tested it out."

"You should at some time. It's good to know your limits."

I pondered, "What if I don't have a limit?" If I did have a flight time limit, did that mean I had a fire use limit too?
"That's impossible. Everyone has limits."

"What's your limit?"

"A day and a little more. I stopped more because I was tired and wanted to go to bed, though."

"Ever tried sleeping and flying at the same time?"

"Hm. No, actually. That would take a lot of practice, but I maybe I could teach myself. Can you do it?"

"Nah, it was just a thought." I dug through my bed for the mask I had thrown there moments ago. Where did it go?

"Animalia will probably a falcon, so please don't attack any birds you see flying."

"Sure, sure." I grinned, imaging Animalia as a huge dragon. "Why not a dragon?" If I was a shifter, I would have so much fun scaring people. From alligators to spiders, I could scare the hell out of someone.

"Not possible. She can only turn into animals."

"Aw, that's too bad. But still a pretty cool power to have."

He agreed, "Yeah, definitely."

Glancing at the time, I realized it was 8:15 pm, and I still needed to prepare myself. "Windy, I need to prepare myself. Where's the banquet at? Any large thing that I can see from a distance?"

"I don't know. I use my phone."

"You mean GPS on your phone? Like Maps?" My eyebrows rose.

"Why not? It's hard to see where your destination is from above. Using your phone is much easier." Good point. I would always have to circle around a couple times to find where I needed to land before swooping down.

"Huh. You're right. Thanks, I'll try that."

"No problem. Bye, Phoenix."

"Bye." I threw my phone on my bed and quickly dressed, readying myself for the night.

I know it's a short chapter with a whole lot of dialogue, but I wanted Windrider and Eve to get to know each other a bit more.

Also, since it's soon the weekend, I will be able to write more!

Thank you and enjoy your day!