Heroes in the Shadows

Chapter 16 No Way Out

Kai! Help! I need you! Kai! HELP!

"Nya!" Kai gasped as he sat up with a fright. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he pushed the hair out of his face. It was then that he noticed he was in bed, but it wasn't his own. He scanned the room to find out he wasn't in his apartment at all. The room was fairly nice with light grey carpet and cream colored walls. The bedsheets were a combination of white and gold colors. The fiery teen turned to his right to see his leather jacket was hanging on the knob of what looked like a closet door. His shoes were placed by the bed, and his phone was plugged in and resting on the nightstand. Memories of last night flashed through his mind as he noticed he was still wearing the same clothes. Kai then snapped out of his thoughts once he heard voices outside the room. He grew cautious. The spikey haired teen looked for any sort of weapon, but the door already creaked open.

Kai was half expecting some giant criminal, but the person behind the door was a short, skinny teen with ginger hair. Kai lowered his guard abit as the guy smiled.

"Hey... bout time you woke up!" He spoke loudly. The younger teen then turned away from Kai as he held the door open.

"Guys, he's awake!" The ginger called out.

"Jay, would you quit shouting? You wanna scare the guy?" A deeper voice replied as they entered the door way. Kai nearly jumped at the sudden bigger dude who was nearly twice the size of the ginger. He tried to get out of bed but ended up flopping to the floor. Jay then looked up at the bigger guy.

"You were afraid of me scaring him?" He asked with a scoff.

"Both of you, get out that room!" A feminine voice called out.

"Yes ma'am," Jay replied with a chuckle as the two teens left the door way. Kai stood up quickly and backed away a bit from the door. It wasn't long before he could hear more footsteps coming towards him. The teen readied himself, but his next visitor was surprising.

"P-princpal Wu?" Kai asked, clearly lost.

"Hello, Kai. I'm very sorry for my students. I'm sure you had a rough night," The old principal replied sadly. Kai shook his head abit in disbelief and started stepping back.

"What's going on? Why am I here? Where's--" Kai stopped himself from almost mentioning a certain red head's name. He dipped his head down in embarrassment. He clenched his fists feeling used and fooled so easily. But the most embarrassing thing to him was that he had gained a crush on the sassy, orange wearing teen. His refused to think about her, but he couldn't help flashing through the many times they spent together over the past few weeks.

"I...I guess three weeks isn't alot to really know someone, is it?" Kai asked outloud while deep in thought. The old principal frowned at the question, knowing exactly who he was referring too.

"I've known people for many years who have found ways to still surprise me, whether those surprises are good or not. Three weeks may not be alot of time, but who am I to judge?" Wu responded. Kai glanced up at the older man to see a smile over his face. Kai returned the gesture with a weak smile of his own. "My students found you past out in an alley, so they brought you back here." Wu motioned Kai to follow him outside of the room. The fiery teen obeyed as the two walked through a hallway with pictures hung all over the wall. Kai noticed one that looked like a younger version of Wu with a woman and a man, both having brown hair. The woman held a child in her hands, which had blonde locks like Wu. At the other end of the hallway, a group of teens were scattered around a neat looking living room.

"Hey, you got him out of the room!" Jay said loudly while laying on the couch. A comic book was in his hands, and a girl sat at the other end of the couch. She brushed her long pink hair off her shoulders while glaring at the short teen.