It was the last article that made me cringe. “Newest villain wages war.” As I picked up the cut-out piece of paper, I unfolded it to see an image at the top. It was blurry and impossible to identify the hero. Karma never worked in my favor. I was glad to see at least my identity was safe.
“New Powers: Villain by Default.”
I was about to ask Aiden which hack wrote the articles. I’d go down there, and before I finished, I’d burn down his office and beat the snot out of him.
On another paper, Aiden had written,Who is Blaze?
“Found my ticket, huh?”
“Ticket?” I didn’t get his meaning.
“To becoming a staff writer.”
I forgot he wasn’t officially a reporter at Revelations. The work on the table bordered on a conspiracy theory. The only thing missing was a blue string linking it all back to a single mastermind. I set down the paper, trying to maintain a neutral tone.
“Why Blaze?” I nearly wretched saying the name.
Aiden started pushing paper about the table. He unfolded an article, pulled another from beneath the legal pad, and dropped a couple dozen photos from the HeroApp™.
“I’m going to get the scoop on Blaze.” I needed a new name before this stuck. “There were a dozen accounts from the hospital. Then, a bank robber from a heist said he shot a man in the chest and he hardly flinched.”
“Villains still have their powers, so what?”
“Blaze saved those people. Xander, he’s not a villain. He’s a hero, a hero withpowers.” The tone in his voice shifted, and it became obvious he was less talking to me and more reaffirming his own theory.
“Take it from somebody who chases heroes for a job. This is going to put you in danger.”
“If I can get an interview with him or find out his origin, it would make my career. The people at Revelations will have to take me seriously. This is the story that starts my career.”
Of course, I could put the suit on and sit down and have an interview with him. But I didn’t want the spotlight focused on me. If I had stopped to read a newspaper, I’d have seen Blaze—God, that’s a stupid name—was already getting more attention than I wanted. Half the city already believed I was just another villain cashing in on the mayhem.
“It’s about the truth,” he said.
“Huh?”
“When I was a kid, I was enamored by the news. Here were a couple of people sitting behind a desk telling us all the information going on in the world. Two people. They shaped the opinions of tens of thousands of people. That’s a lot of power. It’s like a superpower in its own right.”
I was worried Aiden was about to start a maniacal laugh. At any moment, he’d tear away his clothes to revealspandex and a cape and declare his intent to take over the world. Was I standing at ground zero for a villain in the making?
“I don’t want to shape opinions. There are too many people out there trying to do that. The world should see an unbiased truth. I don’t think Blaze is the villain they’re saying.”
He looked at the paper sitting in the middle of the table. It held a single question, the source of the article and Aiden’s driving force. Who is Blaze? It was touching that in a world where headlines were nothing more than clickbait, he wanted to enlighten the people. If it had been any other hero, I would have patted him on the back and asked what I could do to help.
“Heroes can’t do it alone,” he whispered.
I wanted to argue that the self-entitled jerks destroying our city for their own egos needed nothing from us. I wanted to launch into the same speech I gave Griffin every few days. Then I thought of Hellcat going out of her way and asking for nothing in return. Even Aiden, determined to shine a chivalrous light on a hero, wanted to help.
“Maybe you’re right.”
Even with Vanguard falling apart, the HideOut seemed unscathed. Patrons placed their orders and exited withlarge cups of coffee like it was any other day of the week. It was impossible to tell that we were slowly being overrun by criminals, or that at any moment an alien invasion could level the city.
Chad set the silver thermos on the counter, a routine that had become second nature. I chomped through my bagel as he turned away when he froze and eyed the canister. If things were normal, Zipper’s sonic boom would rattle the windows as he swapped it out with an empty one from the previous day. Instead, Chad took the thermos and set it behind the counter, a defeated look passing over his face before he stapled on a smile and greeted the next patron.
“Do you think they’re coming back?”
Griffin’s question snapped me back to the trio at the table. While the world continued on as if nothing was happening, Griffin, Alejandro, and Bernard acted as if somebody had ran over their pet poodles. I could understand Alejandro’s dismay, without superpowered people in his club tips must be pretty bad. It also didn’t help that he probably hadn’t been tossed around the bedroom since the depowering.
Between bites, I answered, “I don’t know.”
