The Masks We Wear

Ch. 2

The warm water felt nice as it hit my back, washing the soap off my back. I couldn't get over what had just happened. It had been a good year since I saw them and I wasn't planning on seeing them again. As I stood there I couldn't help but get frustrated.

"This is always how it was with them, Check on me my ass. They came here because they wanted something. Now I'm stuck babysitting some kid," I thought as I turned the shower off and stepped out.

I looked at myself in the mirror, staring into the eyes of my reflection before closing them. After taking a deep breath I opened them to see that they were now yellow. I closed my eyes again and sighed when they were back to their normal dark brown.

About twenty years ago the first super villain was shown on the news, breathing fire at officers. Soon after the first hero beat him. In the time since then, many people with superhuman abilities have come to be, some heroes, some villains, others just trying to live a normal life. Granted, some would naturally long to have powers so they resort to different types of magic and science, both of which have improved by leaps and bounds in the past years. People who had natural powers without any use of magic or illegal science to acquire them, such as me, are a minority but not rare. I made sure only one person knew about them and now he's dead.

I got dressed and went to the living room downstairs to watch T.V. while doing my workout. One hundred sit-ups, fifty push-ups, and one hundred squats. I turned on the T.V. to see Noel Smith, an extremely popular male model whose fan-base was mostly girls. If I didn't know him personally he would seem cool but I know two of his major secrets, one of which is that he's gay, which I honestly have no clue how he's able to lie to so many people about this as when you meet him he's pretty flamboyant.

"The young celebrity, Noel Smith, also known as Fox, posted this on social media as a response to the death of Dark Archer." I switched the channel.

"I don't give a fuck about what he says online. It's probably to cover himself anyway." I went to Netflix and started watching my favorite shows. After I had finished my work out I looked at the clock to see it was about six twenty. I went outside to my wagon which was still on my bike. As I walked outside I noticed the wind was pretty strong and increasingly getting stronger.

"... Not again," I thought as I looked at the cat house with a litter of kittens in it.

"God damn it." I already had my MMA gloves and my running shoes on beforehand. He was close and getting closer so I ran. I knew that when going against him I'd have to get to an open area if I didn't want to be buried underneath the rubble of the surrounding area. I quickly turned left after getting out of my driveway. Once out of the alley I then turned right and sprinted down the street as fast as I could but once I got close I felt an unnaturally strong gust of wind blast me in the back through a fence chain link fence into a large parking lot. I tried to role but ended up hitting my face into the pavement and rolling onto my feet from there before quickly pressing a button on my phone.

"I have the cops on speed dial after last time Drey," I said while turning around to face the light skin man with a shaved head in an orange jumpsuit. He was supposed to be in prison but whatever.

"Hey man, that's no way to say hi to your cousin," he said while smirking at me. I immediately darted towards him and jumped to the side as a tornado seemed to be shot at me. I then went back to trying to close the distance between us. Again I jumped at the last second to successfully dodge a powerful gust of wind that destroyed the pavement below me. Unfortunately, he was ready for that as the moment I was completely off the ground I felt a powerful gust of wind push me towards Drey.

"Oh fuck!" I thought as I went flying towards Drey. I looked at him and could easily tell he had a large amount of compressed air around his fist.

"Now or never," I thought as he swung at me. I quickly moved his hand to my right as I twisted my body to the side by batting his arm with my right hand. I had created a perfect opening and pulls my feet where now scrapping the ground. His right cheek was now wide open so I punched him in the face as hard as I could with my left hand. There was a slight pause as I landed. Suddenly, wind started to swirl around me powerfully. The air pressure around my head was quickly getting more and denser as my nose began bleeding and her ears rang.

"I have to," I thought. Suddenly I heard a loud explosion and thought I was dead for a little bit until I opened my eyes to see an Italian boy the same age as me, with clean black hair wearing a blue button-down shirt with an officers badge on it and some baggy blue jeans, standing where I was holding a sword. I looked to my right to see a Hispanic girl with long black hair, a green scarf covering the lower half of her face, and a similar uniform bent over breathing heavily.

"Are ... you okay?" she asked while panting.

"Ya, thanks Maria," I responded. I watched as the Italian boy dodged a tornado and shot himself in the direction of my cousin. Drey created a massive tornado behind his fist which ripped multiple trees from the ground and seemed to make a drill. In the blink of an eye, the two were standing with their back turned to each other. They were both on the other side of each other now. Drey had thrown his punch and the Italian boy had slashed his sword. Suddenly the Italian feel on his knees. It seemed as though my cousin had won the clash of their attacks until all the trees that were hurled at the Italian boy seemed to burst into perfect logs. I was dumbfounded as within a second afterward my cousins' shirt burst into nothing but clean ribbons before he fell limply onto the ground. His entire upper body had already started to bruise but there were still no cuts on his body. The junior officer had won. I just watched as the ninja girl, who had finally caught her breath, ran over to the Italian. I knew that my cousin, even with wind magic, didn't stand a chance against the Italian officers' qi.

Not that long after the ambulance and the other officers arrived to arrest Drey. The ambulance checked the three of us out, the Italian, Maria, and I, just to make sure we were okay. After they said that I was gonna be alright and that I just needed to rest, I started walking home the way I came, through the hole in the fence.

"Leaving already," the Italian boy said as I went through the fence.

"Yeah, thanks Charles, also if you don't mind could you keep my name out of this, please."

"Yeah, no worries," he said as he gave me a comforting smile.

"Thanks," I said as I turned around.

"Wait," I stopped walking and there was a silent pause. "You know how I felt about him but I never wanted that for him. He didn't deserve to die," I didn't respond, "I know how close you were with him and I think you would be the best person to take up his role as a hero. With him gone, people will start thinking they may be able to get away with anything."

"I don't care about joining the junior police force if that's where this is going."

"Why not?! I know you were holding back, your strong and smart. You're practically made for this, plus you're a human. You worked hard for the abilities you have without powers or magic. Plus even among those who do have powers, magic, or anything like that you are feared and respected. You, as a genuine fighter, have the chance to make a major difference the right way, the way that he never did, the way he chose not too." I turned to see his frustrated face, I was significantly taller than most people as including him.

"Whose to say what you do is better," he looked at me confused. "In my opinion, you're practically the same. You think just because you have a badge makes you better than the individualities?" I asked as he gave me a somber look. "No offense but when I look at both of your groups I see people who want to help, who care about others, but most importantly I see people who take the law into their own hands."

Charles looked like he was frustrated but he didn't say anything as he looked down trying to think of a way to refute my statement. After a while, I just sighed.

"I'm heading back home, see ya tomorrow," I said as I walked away.