No Heroes Left Behind (Book 1)

Chapter Fifteen: Peter Pan

After doing extensive research, I found absolutely nothing about this guy Maximus. He must be a new hero because there are no articles of any kind on him.

"Nothing! There's nothing!" Erin cries out, slamming the laptop closed in an angry fit of rage. I rub my face and huff a huge breath out. 

Milo walks into the room and both of our heads snap up to look at him. "I bring gifts!" He says dramatically and throws a bag of food at us. We dig into it greedily and stuff our faces with the chicken nuggets and french fries.

"You're the best!" Erin says through a mouthful of food. He smiles victoriously and sits down at the end of my bed.

"So what're you guys doing?" He asks, grabbing my computer from me. He looks at the screen thoroughly and furrows his brows. "Who's this chump?"

I wave my hand, trying to swallow my food as fast as possible so I can answer his question. "I don't know," I finally say, "that's what we're trying to figure out." 

Another person appears in the doorway and I internally groan.

"Landon what're you doing here?" I ask in a strained voice. "You can't just keep inviting yourself over." I tell him. 

He ignores me and walks into my room and closes the door. "I didn't invite myself over, though." He replies as he spreads himself out on my bed beside me, arm wrapped around my back. 

I look at him over my shoulder and narrow my eyes. "Then who invited you?"

He nods in the direction of Milo and I look at him with evil eyes. "Milo invited me." Landon has a smug look on his face as Milo shifts uncomfortably under my glare. Landon interrupts before I can yell at Milo, though. "Come on Charlie, don't act like you don't want me here. I know you love me." He says as he tugs my shoulder, pulling me back so that I am laying right beside him, nestled into the crook of his underarm. 

I glare at him with stone cold eyes. "Landon, don't touch me." I push him off of the side of my bed and he clatters to the floor loudly. Erin and Milo let out loud laughs and I sit back up and watch Landon struggle to get up and return to his spot on the bed.

We finish the food Milo brought, that I'm not realizing was an offering so that I didn't kill him for inviting Landon, and now we sit in silence as we scour the Internet for something on Maximus. I explained what I saw, leaving out the parts where I was Scarlett and why I was really out last night. They agreed to help and immediately started searching for something.

"Hey check this out." Landon says, tapping my arm repeatedly. I turn to look at the screen and see that an article was just posted on the Nightshade City Newspaper. "It says here: New hero, Maximus, saves 250 children in a burning school. The fire was started by Hellfire who had escaped the scene from his most recent appearance with the explosion at the harbour. Maximus apprehended him and Hellfire is now being taken to the Nightshade Villain Containment Department (NVCD)." He scrolls down and continues reading.

"In an interview, Maximus says that he hopes to be the hero that this city needs and would like to collaborate with some of the well known and praised heroes of Nightshade, including Indigo and Scarlett." I freeze. He wants to work with me? Landon stops reading and glances up at me. I shift my gaze from him, to the screen, then back to him. Then I have to play it off like it doesn't affect me at all.

"Hmm that's interesting." I say weakly then immediately want to punch myself in the face for my poor acting skills. His face twitches and he nods his head and turns to look at the screen again.

•••

Landon had to leave about ten minutes ago for something that was apparently really urgent, but he didn't specify what, and Milo, Erin and I have just been sitting on my bed doing nothing in the meantime.