Inciting Events

Chapter 3

Cyrus Anders

Cyrus threw the fancy suit jacket over the back of a random chair. He sat down at his usual workstation to question why he did what he just did. He had snuck into the party for a simple reason, to finish the job he had started. Cyrus was just supposed to get in, grab the left behind piece of equipment, set it up, get out. A simple plan that he had somehow managed to fuck up.

Admittedly he had been put in a tough spot when one of the heroes had the lost piece of equipment. Then only became worse when she insisted on seeing what he was going to do with it. She said she was going to smash it! He couldn’t do anything but show her where he was putting it. Then, on top of it all, he told her to not only get out of the building, but to also get everyone she loved out of the building as well. How could he mess up so badly?!

Cyrus flicked on the television. It immediately showed the new station, which devoutly watched every single night. They were just finishing up the weather segment, which made Cyrus smile at least. All sunny skies throughout next week. But when they suddenly went to breaking news, Cyrus was not surprised, but he was not happy.

The screen showed him a high quality image of the El Toro Hotel with people swarmed outside. Everyone there had bulky masks on their face to help them breathe and a number of the guests he recognized from the party were changed out of their fancy dresses and into protective suits. Cyrus thought he saw a hero named Lily Pad rushing around checking on people. He didn’t have the time to have all of the hero's powers memorized, but he was pretty sure she had something to do with healing. He felt pity for her, that must be so stress inducing.

But the headline was what got Cyrus.

Hero Braineigh Calls For Evacuation Of Building And Saves Hundreds Of Lives!

Cyrus dropped the remote. He had expected the image, but not the headline. The plan had failed, no one died, no one was mortally hurt, the worst people really were just a little bit shaken. Although Cyrus was relieved that no one was actually hurt, this time, he felt a wave of anxiety wash over him as he realized what the situation meant.

Tempest would be mad, really really mad. Cyrus could no longer hear the television, everything sounded like he was underwater. He also felt like he was underwater, his eyes started watering and he couldn’t breathe anymore. Yes, plans had failed before, but nothing this big. He knew that for the next long while to come that the screams coming from the torture room would be much louder. But that was not even the scariest part. The scariest part was that those screams may be coming from Cyrus himself. He had never once caused anything to go wrong for Tempest, even when he first got there. He had always been the perfect little ‘smart boy’. He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle the walls of that room.

What if he found out it was Cyrus’s fault? What if he did something to Cyrus’s family? What if he hurt Cyrus? What if he targeted the heroes involved that night? What ifs ran through his brain as he was slowly finding it harder and harder to breathe, and harder and harder to hold back the heavy tears already filling his eyes.

Cyrus tensed up even more than he already was when he heard a whistle of a happy tune alongside skippy footsteps walking into the room. He knew who that was, he would know if he heard it from a mile away. Tempest was happy. Why was he happy right now?

Tempest walked up to right behind Cyrus’s seat and bent down to put a kiss on the boy’s temple. Cyrus scrunched his face a bit at the gesture, he always hated when he did that. “Well wasn’t that a great mission!? Went better than I ever could have imagined, but then again…I knew my darling smart boy would never disappoint me. Ain’t that rig-” Tempest stopped when he glanced over at the television and saw the headline. “What the fuck?!”