Heroes

Chapter 65: fourth street

Techno POV.

“Hello Techno,” Dream said playfully as he walked towards me. “It’s been a while since the three of us have hung out, hasn’t it, old friend?” I glared back at him and my gaze flickered between my brother and my ex-best friend.

As I was backed towards the wall I saw George tensing up, and could see small flickers of electricity flowing throughout his body. It was clear he was going to launch an attack at the pair and I gave him a look telling him not to. Honestly I was unsure what to do but I knew that no matter what happened I wouldn’t let George blow his cover, even though Wilbur already knew.

At the signal I gave George shrunk back slightly, probably to witness what was happening without a chance of him getting hurt. Dream once again stepped in front of him when he caught me looking and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“It has been a while, but I’ve outgrown plastic Halloween masks in the past decade, Dream, something you’ve clearly not done.” I said, smirking up at him without so much as a quiver in my voice even though I was feeling cautious.
“But it seems that you haven’t outgrown costumes,” the blond responded, tilting his head.

“Is there a reason why you two are planning on bothering me on my day off?” I questioned both of them. “If this was something important I would have allowed you to do this tomorrow, but today is the first time in like 5 years I’ve had a day to myself.”
“I just want to see my old friend again, and my old mentor while I was at it.”

“If you want to see them so badly I can arrange a visit when you two are in prison. Heck I’ll even bring Tommy along too, you both know how much he wanted to hang out with us.” I grinned.
“You’re getting repetitive brother,” the brunette informed me, before leaning closer to the sociopath. “He said the same thing in the library, I swear to god, no creativity.”

After Wilbur laughed at his own comment he turned to smirk at me. “Let me make this simple Techno, either you help us to organise a meet up with Philza or Tommy or I kill 404.” As he said that he glanced over to George, who froze but Dream didn’t seem to notice, probably thinking my brother was bluffing.

My gaze lowered, refusing to look at anyone or anything as I thought it over although there was nothing to really think. Wilbur never lied and when he told someone he was going to do something then he was definitely going to do it. If I didn’t organise a meet-up with Philza and my brother Wilbur would pull the trigger on George right in front of myself and Dream.

At least something good would come out of this. I was able to tell that Dream cared about George, and if he was killed then Wilbur would be dead less than ten seconds later. As much as I wanted to end up losing my brother because of the stunts he’s caused, I knew that I couldn’t let George end up dead.

My other idea was that I could attack them right here. Wilbur was standing quite close to me, and I could easily land a hit on him. However then I’d have to deal with Dream, and if George wasn’t prepared at the exact same second I was, the blond could kill me.

“Fine,” I murmured, hating the fact that I gave in to my brother and my old best friend. The fact of even agreeing to do something that they wanted made my skin crawl. “I will call Philza and organise for him and Tommy to meet up somewhere, okay?” Wilbur and Dream seemed satisfied with that.

I pulled my phone out and took my time finding Philza’s contact by scrolling through the list of contacts alphabetically even though it was in my recent contacts. Both of them seemed irritated at how long I took, especially when I thought to myself out loud, “should I call his mobile, or the home phone, or the phone at the place where he worked?”

“Does it really matter?” Wilbur asked, losing his patients really quickly with me, which is something he would do all the time as a kid. “Just call his mobile before I change my mind.”
“I can’t call his mobile though,” I pouted overdramatically. “He is old and he usually has his phone and mute.”

“Make a choice right now Techno.” Dream threatened, and I playfully rolled my eyes before doing as he said.
There were a few moments of silence before he answered the phone on the second or third ring. “Techno? What’s up mate you never call me when you take a day off.”

“Look I need to meet up with you and Tommy later,” I said to him blatantly. “I’m with some friends and was wondering if you wanted to meet up at Fourth Street Cafe.” Philza immediately caught on. Fourth Street Cafe was not actually a place, it was a code for something else.

✨10 years ago✨

“Okay Techno. That is enough combat practice,” I looked over to my father who was beaming with pride. I put down the axe which Philza had been having me train with and walked over to him, my sweat drenched hair stuck to my forehead as I panted and grabbed a bottle of water.

“That was amazing Techno,” the blond praised me. “One day you will be able to protect all of the people in this city and they will all be grateful that they can live in a safe place.”
I smiled at what he said, before he walked with me off of the roof of the quiet apartment block where we lived and down the stairs to our apartment.

“Now,” he said happily. “There is some stuff that I want to talk over with you, just in case you, your brother, or I ever get into a dangerous situation.” Philza led us into the main room of our apartment. Since I got my powers my brother Tommy and I were homeschooled. A small corner of the living room had been converted into a classroom and Tommy looked pissed.

I wasn’t surprised. Both he and I hated being homeschooled but Philza was strict. He was worried that if one of us went out onto the street without supervision we’d get kidnapped, even though there was a highschool and a middle school about ten minutes walk down busy streets that were always swarmed with people.

“Do we have to be here right now?” Tommy, my brat of a brother, asked. His schooling had ended for today but Phil had apparently not let him leave.
“Yes, this isn’t something that I want to have to talk about right now but we have to.” Philza said, seeming concerned.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked the older blond, also not feeling bothered but deciding not to complain. Also I think it would annoy Tommy if I encouraged this.
“Well if Techno is going to fight crime there is a chance we might be taken hostage by super villains.” Philza said in a solemn voice, and Tommy immediately perked up.

“Hostage situation?” He questioned excitedly. “Does that mean you are finally going to teach me to kick some peoples asses!”
“No,” Philza said. “I will teach you when you are older if you behave. But I have been thinking that there is always a chance that one of us could be taken.”

“So you are wanting us to do what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Wear GPS’s? Learn a foreign language?”
“Code words,” Phil stated. “So I have planned some code words or phrases which we are going to be using.” Both Tommy and I groaned at this, Phil ignored us though as he began.

“So do you two know that cafe down the street from here?” He asked, “the North Street Cafe?” I nodded and Tommy did too. “Well if you ever need some support, you are in a situation where you need another one of us to come and help fight a hostage taker, then you will refer to the place as Fourth Street Cafe.”

“And what happens if they ask why the actual place is ‘North’ instead of ‘Fourth’?” I questioned, and Phil shrugged.
“Just tell him it was a slip of the tongue,” he said. I nodded in acceptance and Tommy did the same.

✨modern day✨

“Okay Techno. We can meet at the North Street Cafe tonight for dinner,” Philza said, and neither of the criminals seemed to notice the inconsistency.
‘Tomorrow’ Wilbur muttered, and I reluctantly nodded at him. “Actually Phil, could that meet-up be tomorrow? I am busy tonight.”

It seemed that he didn’t want to do that. Philza wanted to offer me help tonight, but he didn’t object because he clearly knew that someone was overhearing me. “I need to go now,” I carried on, before pressing the ‘end call’ button.
“Good,” Wilbur smirked as I pocketed my phone.
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1543 words