by Tanya Lisle
City Without Heroes
By Tanya Lisle
Published by Scrap Paper Entertainment 2017
Chapter 1
Moving in
At her last school, Indira had heard every hopeful and melodramatic monologue possible about moving to a new city. As the new kid, they hated it there and it would be a great opportunity to start over. No one knew them, which was wonderful and terrible. They both could and could not stand the eyes that followed them down the halls. This was nothing and exactly like the place they’d just come from. This was their chance to be the hero or villain they had always dreamed of.
Well, that last one wasn’t going to happen. Not in Whitten. Certainly not with Indira.
For her part, Indira was approaching this move with hopeful optimism. A month before, her father had been kidnapped to replicate his robotics research by one of the many villains in the city of Iverson. Before that, her school had been taken hostage, though her mother had kept her and her brother home that day. Over the years, she had lost friends and classmates to property damage, falling in with the wrong crowd, ambition, and generally trying to make it in a world of heroes and villains without enough experience. Moving to a new city that promised none of these things would ever happen again was a proposition none of them fought. Eleventh grade wasn’t the best time for her to be switching to a new school, but she could deal with it.
The downside was that her mother decided that their new house needed a fresh coat of paint. Though the walls were not in terrible shape, Whitten’s nickname of The Speckled City appeared to be more than just a name. Embedded into their walls were black balls of something that their mother would simply not tolerate looking at. While their father was at work, the rest of the family had been drafted into removing as many of them from the walls as possible and painting over the ones that would not come out. As irritating as it was for Indira to pry the pebble-sized black spheres from the walls with a butterknife, her uncle was having a much worse time with patching and painting.
“Ness! How many times do I have to tell you, none of that here!”
Indira glanced over to see the paint roller coating the wall in a fresh coat of yellow all on its own. Uncle Ness was on his phone, though the frown on his face swiftly changed into a smile as he looked up at his sister with those innocent grey eyes that most of their family bore. “No one is going to know, Ava,” he told her. “You think they’re watching you? Looking for a reason to kick you out?”
Indira, knowing that they had forgotten she was there, popped another of the black specks out of the wall. It fell into the bowl with a heavy thud with the others.
“We moved here for a reason,” her mother said, storming across the living room and snatching the floating paint roller from the wall. She shoved it back into her brother’s hands. “No powers. You can paint the old fashioned way.”
“Get sore the old fashioned way,” Uncle Ness muttered. “They only outlawed heroes, not finding a better way to paint!”
“You can use the exercise.”
“I get plenty of exercise.” He looked conspiratorially over at Indira and winked, a grin on his face as he shook his head and went back to painting. Indira could see that, while he might have his hand on the handle, his hand was not what was moving it across the wall.
“You’re always so lazy,” her mother complained, though she didn’t try to stop him this time. “You rely on them too much.”
“Well, if you got them...”
Her mother started to say something, but it caught in her throat. Indira glanced over to see her brow furrow, head shaking ever so slightly. Her voice came out dark and quiet. “You shouldn’t use any of them inside this city. They’ll make you disappear when you do.”
Uncle Ness blinked, looking back over to her. Indira abandoned even pretending to do her job, keeping a careful eye on her mother. Her foresight was limited to brief glimpses, difficult to control and came to her at random moments. Her mother knew this full well, however, and would often say things that sounded like a premonition that were actually meant to get them back to work. It was nearly impossible to tell foresight from her screwing with them at this point, though sometimes they could catch the slightest shift in those grey eyes to tell them she was serious.
“You’re just saying that, right?” he asked.
“Just paint, Ness.”
“Ava, what-”
“Paint.”
Indira caught the glimmer of a grin on her mother’s face and relaxed. If she wasn’t worried about it, then Indira didn’t need to be.
Indira tuned out Uncle Ness as he continued to complain about painting the old way, scanning the wall for any more signs of black specks. She knew it was only a matter of time now before he tried to bring her into this and she knew better than to be here when he did. The wall appeared to be mostly clear except for the few that were embedded so deeply that it would leave a substantial hole in the drywall if she tried to pry them out.
Satisfied, she stepped down from the chair and dropped the bowl on the kitchen counter. She could feel her uncle’s eyes on her, ready to draw her into his pleas, but her mother was quicker.
“Where are you going?” her mother asked, not looking away from her uncle.
“To help Raz,” Indira said, already heading toward the stairs. “Make sure he isn’t putting holes in the wall.”
“You’re going to leave me alone with her?” Uncle Ness demanded, but Indira was already rushing up the stairs, letting her long braid hit her back with every step. The betrayal in his words was undermined by the laughter in his voice, and was followed by the sound of a light smack to his arm.
Her brother was nowhere in sight at the top of the stairs or in the hallway he was meant to be painting, but neither was any sign of those little black specks. In their place were little patches of wet paint, and the faint sound of his voice coming from the bathroom at the end of the hall. Indira took a cursory look at the walls, deciding that their mother would be content with the job before going to see what was going on.
“Shiraz?” she asked. She knocked on the door and he fell silent. “Everything good in there?”
“Nah, it’s just Indi,” he said as he opened the door. The fourteen year old looked back at her, his grey eyes disapproving as he shook his head. She could see the headphones in his ears and phone in his other hand. “What do you want?”
“Rude.” Indira was smiling as she said it, stepping back from the door. “Just seeing if you need help.”
Shiraz leaned out the door to hear the commotion happening downstairs. “No,” he told her, stepping back inside. Through the door, she could see he had another bowl of small black specks that was quickly filling and several bits of the bathroom had been filled. He sat down on the floor with another butterknife, prying another speck out of the wall and dropping it into the bowl. “Nah, it’s nothing,” he said, continuing with the conversation as if she wasn’t there. “I haven’t even been out of this house yet. It’s taking ages to get these things out of the walls, and mom’s insisting we get them all.”
He pushed the door closed and Indira left him, heading to her own room. Boxes of her things were piled up in one corner, with her bed covered in plastic and a can of paint in the corner. The plaster from this morning had dried and she could paint over those patches that now littered her walls, but she let out a sigh and fell back on the bed.
Shiraz was right. Neither of them had left the house since they moved in. She needed to get out of here.
“Oh, come on,” she heard Shiraz complain loudly from the bathroom, followed by a clattering of the butterknife on the tile floor. It sounded like he needed to get out too. They knew none of the city outside this house and the black speckled wa
lls. They were starting school tomorrow and didn’t even know where the building was. At the very least, they could use a break from the paint fumes inside the house.
Indira lay there for a moment longer before she finally got back onto her feet. She grabbed a sweater and her purse off the top of the pile of boxes, checking her phone. She frowned at the lack of missed calls or messages, but let it slide. Her friends likely had other matters to attend to today and she had other things to do right now.
She went to the bathroom door and gave it one hard knock. “Raz! Get your stuff. We’re getting out of here.”
Shiraz opened the door, looking at her like she’d gone crazy. His headphones were no longer plugged in, though still hung out one ear. “What makes you think mom is going to let us go anywhere until we finished cleaning this whole house? We’re not bringing mom with us, are we?”
“No,” Indira said, nodding to the continued bickering coming from downstairs. “We’re taking someone off her hands. Come on.”
As Indira led the way downstairs, she let her thoughts travel ahead of her. Hey, Uncle Ness? Can you convince Mom to let us get out of here for a bit?
Doubt it, he said. Your mother isn’t going to be happy you’re using telepathy in the house.
If you have it, right?
“You have two children to do this work for you,” Uncle Ness said as soon as they rounded the corner. “I said I’d help you get settled in, not paint your house! Is this the thanks I get for helping you?”
“If you don’t want to help, you can leave. Don’t you have clients who are waiting for you?”
“Paul’s got them,” he said. “I’m just trying to help, Ava. In the most efficient way possible.”
“Your help is illegal here,” she snapped at him. Letting out an irritated breath, she turned on her children. “Indira, did you finish upstairs already?”
“I was thinking that Raz and I should go see where the school was. We start tomorrow, so we should probably figure out where it is, right?”
Her mother stared them both down, though neither Indira nor Shiraz balked at her gaze. “Take your Uncle with you,” she said finally, after a very long and appraising look. “He’s going to mess up my walls if he keeps this up. I don’t know how anyone deals with you, Ness. You’re impossible.”
“And yet you trust me with your kids,” Uncle Ness said, gladly putting down the paint and heading for the door. “Come along, children. We’re off to take a look at the brand new school you’re going to and all the magical things within it.”
Raz laughed in the way teenagers do when adults think they’re being funny but they are unimpressed. Uncle Ness said nothing aloud and continued to lead them to the door, his voice in their minds. You appreciate this or I convince her to make you take over my painting.
Shiraz shut up, but Indira let a grin cross her face. If her mother was really going to insist on no abilities now that they moved to Whitten, then she was going to try and enjoy Uncle Ness’ company until he had to go back.
Chapter 2
Uncle Ness
Most hours of the day, Ness Bulsara was their flaky uncle and a freelance programmer, but it was no secret in the family that he was also a superhero. As Quantum, he helped save Iverson on more than a few occasions, though rarely took on anything that was too dangerous. He could move things with his mind, including himself, and had worked to make his telekinesis more powerful through years to make people think he could fly or punch people really hard in the face.
He had been the only one to protest their move to Whitten, despite not coming with them. A city that had outlawed intentional public displays of powers, heroism, and using supernatural abilities for personal gain didn’t sit well with him. Indira could tell that there was something else too, though he never said what it was. Instead, he offered to help them move and stick around until they got settled. Indira suspected there was more to it than that and now, watching him reach across the dash to tap on the clock, she was certain of it.
There was a brief hiss of static out of the radio before Ness relaxed behind the driver’s seat and pulled out of the small suburb outside of the downtown core that they now called home. Shiraz sat in the front while Indira watched the back of her uncle’s head. He was letting his hair grow out these days, though she could still see a few scars from battles past and the dangerous life he’d chosen for himself.
“There isn’t some villain that just moved into town or something, is there?” Indira asked after a moment. Shiraz perked up in his seat, Indira knowing that he was wondering the same thing.
“No,” Uncle Ness told them. “Nothing like that.”
“So why are you hanging around so long?” Shiraz asked. “There’s no way you want to be painting. You’ve got, like, hero stuff to be doing. Or work.”
“Paul’s got work covered,” Uncle Ness said, earning an eye roll out of both of them. His business partner, Paul, was a friend of his from school that Uncle Ness dumped his work onto whenever hero business came up. There was no way that Paul wasn’t aware of Uncle Ness’ double life, but he insisted that he liked the extra work.
“Mom’s right,” Shiraz said, looking back out the window. “You take advantage of him.”
“Didn’t you also have a kid?” Indira asked. “Was thinking about being a hero. You were trying to talk him out of it. Just transfered into my school before I left. Damien?”
“Damien’s not doing anything rash,” Uncle Ness assured her. “And all the hero stuff can be dealt with by other people while I’m gone. There’s something about Whitten, though, and I need both of you to be careful out here.”
“Because there’s no heroes?”
“Because heroes go missing in this place.”
None of them spoke as Uncle Ness turned the corner. Shiraz let out a breath and took his phone out of his pocket, frowning at it before looking back to Uncle Ness. “You sure it’s not just the cell reception?” he asked. “My calls have been dropping like crazy since I got here.”
“No, that’s not it,” he said. “I’m going to stay in town long enough to poke around a bit. I know a few people who’ve come here before to check it out and no one’s heard from them since. Just in case, though, I need you kids to be careful. Especially you.” His eyes went to the rear view mirror to meet Indira’s. “We think they’re tracking people down somehow, and I don’t know if it’s heroes specifically or just anyone they can find with powers.”
“Why me?” Indira demanded. “Raz has powers too!”
“Yeah, knowing someone’s going to die soon is really useful in a fight,” Shiraz said. “I’m not going to turn hero any time soon.”
“And I am? Even if I wanted to be constantly in the hospital, you saw the results of my powers test last year.”
The powers test had become a stable part of their education. Every two years, students went in as part of a physical examination to determine if they had gained or lost any new abilities over the course of their education. It was an effort to catch abilities early and offer students mentorship or training, and to keep them from rashly running off to become heroes without knowing what they were getting into. The test was notoriously difficult to cheat and resulted in a significant decrease in teenage superhero mortality rates, as well as teenage superheroes.
While they could keep their results private, Indira saw no need to in a family where most of them had some ability anyway. Her tests showed that her minor telepathy was actually getting weaker as time went on and that she was likely going to lose it entirely in the next few years at this rate.
“There is no way you actually scored that low on the powers test.”
“At least I don’t have to-”
“Look,” Uncle Ness said firmly, moving his gaze to the road, “it might be nothing, but I’d appreciate it if you could be careful while you’re settling in. Both of you.”
“What’s mom say?” Shiraz asked.
Uncle Ness shook his head. “She doesn’t think an
ything’s going to happen. Thinks I’m being paranoid. And I might be, but sometimes it takes her a bit before she sees anything coming. And on your right is Larkdale Secondary.”
Indira and Shiraz both looked over to their new school. It looked bigger and newer than their last school in the heart of the city, but it was still very recognizably a secondary school. Teens walked past and loitered on a set of picnic benches out front, which made Indira wonder if there really was that little to do in Whitten.
In front, Shiraz twitched and looked quickly away from it. Neither Uncle Ness or Indira said anything, Uncle Ness continuing to drive past the school. Shiraz relaxed a moment later, very used to the flashes, though Indira tried to get a better look at the kids walking past the school. She didn’t know any of them yet, but if Shiraz’s reaction was anything to go by, one of them wasn’t going to be around much longer.
“Well, I don’t feel like going back to painting,” Uncle Ness said, turning the car towards downtown. “I think I saw a gelato place. My treat.”
Chapter 3
Larkdale Secondary
Indira had a newfound sympathy for new students and the frustration that often came off of them on their first day. She hadn’t changed her mind about Larkdale Secondary now that she was inside of it, still finding it to be a larger version of her last school. The halls weren’t so covered in the faces of previous alumni, the school only a few years old now to compensate for the influx of new families moving into the area, but the walls still seemed to already be showing the wear. Or perhaps that was just the continued presence of the black specks embedded at random into them.
Unfortunately, the secretaries were much the same as her old school as well. The woman at the front wore a nametag with no name on it, smiling through her bright red lipstick with the glassy eyes of someone who was expecting inane questions. “Did you want a hand finding your way around?” she asked, glancing back into the rest of the office for someone that she could send with them in her place.