by Simon Archer
Still, through it all, the one thing I was certain of was that he was one of the good guys again. That was… pretty cool.
Aylin’s soft words broke me out of my thoughts. “You must be exhausted, Starlight.”
“I am,” I admitted with a tired smile.
“Before you rest, though…” Andie pulled out her phone. I watched as she dialed a number, and within seconds, Kara picked up. “Hey, Strawberry!”
“Andie! Oh, my God. It’s terrible here. Nick is--”
“Nick is with us,” Andie interrupted sweetly. “He’s safe. A little broken, so he’ll need some extra good lovin’, but he’s safe.”
A relieved sob came through the speaker as Andie turned the video cam around to face me. Kara’s eyes were bloodshot and swollen. She’d definitely been crying before we called.
“Hey, Moon,” I greeted with as much enthusiasm I could muster. Not that I wasn’t happy to see her, but the sleepiness was already starting to take its toll. “You doing okay?”
“You had us worried sick, you idiot!” Kristen’s voice came over the speaker. The camera jiggled, then suddenly, I was face to face with Matt and Kristen.
“I’m sorry,” I managed with a weak laugh. “What’s going on over there?”
“Most of the ghouls are down and out,” Matt informed me. “Kara was able to whip something up so that we could detect them, so we essentially went on a bug hunt for those sonuvabitches.”
“Were they the only ones that came in through Switch’s portals?” I asked. It was weird to me that I hadn’t seen any other villains than Switch and the Triple Triad the whole time I was fighting. I had been able to tell that there were fights, however, so surely everyone else had been off fighting something.
“There were some Carter students,” Kara answered offscreen, and Kristen shifted the video so that I could see her again. “Well, lesser students to be exact.”
“Lesser students?” Eric chirped. “Like the rejects that didn’t cut it in villain school?”
“That’s right,” Kristen confirmed with a frown. “Thankfully, most of them were spared and taken into custody. Some of them, well…”
A hard silence fell over the room.
“Yeah. I understand all too well.” I sighed heavily. It was a hard thing to realize, that we couldn’t save everyone, but at the same time, I realized it was one of the burdens of being a hero. We would always try our best, and that gave me a surge of hope and courage for the future.
“What’s going to happen to Valcav?” Eric asked, sensing the sudden shift in tone.
“There are already whispers of Inferno offering us to use The Brand as a home for the time being,” Matt cut in again. “Valcav will be okay, but she’s going to take some time to repair, even for City Master!”
I nodded. “That makes the most sense, seeing as there’s the treaty and all.
“It’s also large enough for both Academies,” Andie noted. “There’s so much unutilized space here.”
“It’ll be a change,” I assured, “but we all made it through this, and we’ll make it through worse.”
There was a collective agreement between all of us, and it brought a smile to my face. Soon, we would all be together again.
A strangled noise cut into our moment, and a second later, Kara gasped so loudly that it might as well have been a scream. “Buttons!”
My heart leaped out of my throat. How could I have forgotten about my talking cat? “Is he okay?”
Kristen followed Kara with the phone to show her picking him up from the ground. There were a few spots on his fur that were matted with dried blood, but otherwise, he appeared to be in decent condition.
“Nick,” Buttons rasped, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I smiled brightly. “Me too. Are you hurt?”
“I will be fine.” The cat laughed and rested his head on Kara’s shoulder. “This isn’t my blood.” Buttons didn’t elaborate, and at that moment, I wasn’t going to question. “I am just exhausted from looking everywhere for you.”
“It was chaotic,” I reasoned with him. “Thank you for doing your best.”
And as if we needed any more dramatic interruptions, a soft knock sounded from the dorm door, and before any of us could open it up, my dad let himself in. He was looking a bit more ragged than I expected, a bit older than I remembered from even yesterday. Dark circles hung under his eyes, and a large bruise stood out like a sore thumb on his neck, but he had fought a hard battle today. A little rest and relaxation would probably have him back to his normally eccentric self, something I found that I looked forward too.
“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Dad asked with a sheepish smile.
I shook my head and handed the phone off to Eric before I stood. “I’ll be right back.”
As I walked slowly over to my father, he held a welcoming arm out for me, and I was happy to receive such a warm invitation from him after everything that happened earlier that night. We stepped out the door, and he closed it behind us for privacy, the halls of the Brand Academy still empty.
“How are you feeling, Nicky?” he asked sincerely as he looked over my injuries. To be honest, all I felt was tired and a bit numb. Maybe I would feel more after sleeping, but for now, I just wanted to drift away with my friends nearby.
“I’m okay, Dad,” I summed up. “What about you?”
“I’ve looked better,” he chuckled, “but… I’ve also looked a hell of a lot worse, so I can’t really complain.”
There was a mirth in my old man’s eyes that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid, a sparkle that had been missing. It reminded me of what he’d said atop the volcano during our fight with Switch.
“Did you mean what you said about becoming a hero… well, my kind of hero… again?” I asked. “That our little agreement from the World’s Finest is going to become the new normal?” My voice was much timider than I would have liked it to be, but I was so desperate to cling to even that small shred of hope.
“I mean it,” he replied after a moment.
“What made you change your mind?” I asked, almost too worried that I might make him change back again if I pressed too hard, but I had to know. “I mean, it’s only been a semester since we made our deal…”
My dad pondered my questions carefully before he nodded to himself and hummed. “Well, you did, Nick. The world I’m building here is great, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t realize how much I’d lost until I had it again.”
His confession brought an emotion up inside me that I hadn’t realized I had suppressed, and I swallowed the lump in my throat to keep from breaking down again. I’d cried enough for a while.
“That isn’t the only reason, though,” my father continued. “I want to create a better future for everyone. I always have, but I’ve been… bitter. Stubborn. Vengeful against the people I thought didn’t understand, didn’t let me save them. You, well, you showed me that people deserve a chance to change, to think about their past transgressions. You gave that to me. Everyone did. I believe it was you who said we aren’t gods, right?”
My eyes went wide as I was reminded of what I’d told the Brand students that day in City Master’s class a few weeks prior. So, that had gotten back to him? Of course, it had. City Master probably told him about it.
“You’re going to make me blush with all these compliments,” I joked, but the reality of it was that I was beyond flattered that I had brought about these changes to my now ex-hero-ex-villain-now-a-hero-again father.
“You should take them and wear them proudly, Nick,” he told me seriously. “You and your friends are the heroes of the future. You are going to be the ones that change the world for the better.”
“That’s a big responsibility,” I chuckled, “but we’re ready.”
My father grinned and put his hands on my shoulders as he looked me dead in the eyes. He squeezed, and for a flash of a second, I thought I saw worry in his eyes. We’d won a battle today, but this wasn’t just the
beginning. It was the beginning to the end of a new era of heroes and villains, and we needed to prepare for what was to come, whatever that might be.
“I know you are.”
24
Ice Bringer
The Antarctic chill was savage against my skin, even for someone as frozen and cold as myself, but it was worth every last bit of suffering to see my machines completed. They tinkered about, working with minds of their own but perfectly controlled by none other than myself.
Everything had fallen into place. Soon, I would rid the world of Inferno once and for all.
I laughed loudly as a streak of white-blue lightning cracked across the midnight sky like a chorus to my maniac melody.
A Note from the Author
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