Sara Strong

Chapter 9

Sara had been pacing for almost 15 minutes. Gwen had started timing her 5 minutes in.

"He was a total asshole," she said. "He just attacked me out of nowhere. You can't just attack people." She paused for a split-second to send a quick glance to Gewn where she was sitting with her knees underneath her on Sara's bed. Gwen nodded sympathetically, trying too hard to hide her smile. Admittedly the whole attacking and threatening part seemed a little concerning, but Gwen couldn't help but find how Sara was responding to be a little funny. SHe was acting like she just had a fight with her friend at recess and needed to vent.

"Frankly, I don't even know about him anymore. Where all those criminals he caught really criminals, or just innocent bystanders just walking down the street?"

"Well," Gwen said, tossing her head to the side, sending her tight curls bouncing. "Considering, they all ending up with convictions, I don't think they were that innocent.

Sara barely paused. "And he couldn't seem to decide if I was some incredibly dangerous threat he needed to take out or some nuisance he couldn't wait to get rid of."

"He does seem like kind of a dick," Gwen admitted. It was always funny when Gwen swore, although it wasn't too rare. It just juxtaposed with her big brown eyes and her cute heart-shaped face.

"Yeah, right?!"

Sara turned to her friend, breaking her pacing. "You're making a face. What's up with that face?"

Gwen hesitated. "It's just..." In a burst of movement, Gwen pulled her legs out from under her and sat straight. "He's way too aggressive. That's definitely something he needs to work on. But I almost feel like the whole brooding, the angry thing is probably part of his charm. He reminds me of Batman. A dark, untrusting loner. You just have to win him over."

Sara just stared at her. "Never compare the two ever again," she said completely serious.

Gwen rolled her eyes a bit, but she held out her hand. Sara took it.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You've looked up to this guy for so long and he ended up being a jerk. That sucks."

"Not that long," Sara insisted, but she didn't let go. "He's only been active for a few months."

Gwen smiled. "At least you still got to meet another person like you? You've been wanting this forever. Even his shitty attitude can't take away that. How did he get the best of you anyway? I mean, it's you. What powers did he have?"

Sara looked away. "He didn't have any."

"What?"

"He didn't have any," Sara repeated.

"No I heard you," Gwen said. "I was just surprised. How did he -"

"He had a lot of weapons," Sara defended herself. "And I was surprised, I didn't exactly expect to get rejected by my personal hero and then have to fight him."

Gwen lasted a few seconds before blurting, "you know that just makes him cooler right?" ANd even more like Batman.

Sara shoved her friend away and Gwen just laughed, she knew enough not to say that last part out loud.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John was waiting for Wes when he got home, just like he did every night. Wes knew that he had work in the morning and he felt a now familiar tinge of guilt in his gut. He pushed it down, just like every other time.

He guardian was sitting on the couch one lamp on beside him, while the rest of the house remained in darkness. A lone beer bottle was clutched in his hands, about halfway finished.

Wes made it across the room and into the hall without John saying a word. He opened his door before John spoke. "Are you hurt?" he asked. His voice was rough and he sounded tired down to the bone.

"No," Wes responded. And he went into his room and shut the door.

There wasn't anything else to say. He was done offering lies about where he was or false promising about not doing it again. They both knew the truth and despite everything, Wes respected him enough to not want to lie to him anymore if he didn't have too.

He wasn't done. He might not ever be done. It didn't feel like he was really getting anywhere. The gang meeting was a bust. They didn't tell him anything he didn't already know. At this point, all the legitimate leads had dried up and Wes was doing little more than grasping at straws for any sort of possible direction. There was a possibility he might not ever know what happened to his parents. But that didn't matter. He would spend the rest of his life trying to honour their memory and trying to discover the truth behind their deaths.

And that was fine. What else was he going to do? Find some girls to go to prom with? Train that meta girl to be a hero? And later pick a school to attend, marry some other girl, get a job and have kids.

That was what John wanted for him. And if he was honest with himself, John was probably right about it being what his parents would want too.

It didn't matter. Tomorrow he'd go out and pick a fight with the next biggest and baddest in the area. Maybe he would find that girl again, make sure she wasn't too dangerous.

There wasn't anything better to do.