Hardly A Hero [REWRITTEN ON NEW ACCOUNT]

Chapter 16: Love Spells and Rookie Red

TerraStorm greeted me at the front of his so-called 'lair'.

It had taken me to twenty minutes to arrive but soon I was stood in the middle of TwoLake Town. I roamed around for a bit, wondering where the bustling crowds of people were. Instead of excited shoppers polluting the roads surrounding TwoLake's famous shopping centre, there was an eery fog floating through, not far off the ground. The frosty breeze bit at my exposed jaw and nose and I decided to get myself indoors before I developed a cold.

"Where is everyone?" I asked as TerraStorm lead the way through the darkened, mysteriously empty nightclub.

"I hacked into the local news and put out a weather warning. Apparently a minor storm seems to give everyone an excuse to pack up and go on vacation somewhere warm. Thought it would help us to get out of the lair without being spotted."

I dipped my head to the side, not openly admitting that I was impressed but keeping the thought to myself. I knew he knew his plan was smart anyway.

We weaved through several short underground tunnels before reaching a set of silver metal doors. Secret passageways didn't seem as exciting as they used to, probably because I knew blending in with everyone and acting innocent was way more practical than raising suspicion by sneaking off.

It was then that I realised I was about to meet a group of questionably dangerous Supers like me. With the mask on, the anxiety and fear of having to meet new people swept away along with the other not-so-confident thoughts I was having. It was crazy what a piece of fabric could do.

"You ready?"

Before I could find an excuse to back out, I nodded.

"Lead the way."

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When TerraStorm had called his hide-out a 'lair', I figured he was trying to make himself appear a lot more experienced as a Super than he actually was. But I was wrong.

He leaned forward and opened the doors with a light shove, holding it out for me. I stepped through, expecting to be met with a dimly lit, second-rate version of my HQ. But what greeted me was far from my expectations.

The 'room' was no semi-large open space with a few gadgets scattered around. No. It was a cave. A literal cave.

Plate-sized lights were embedded into the mud brown ceiling, radiating a balanced amount of light that illuminated everything I needed to see.

We were very far off the ground. The structure I was standing on was almost like a balcony, with warehouse-like spiral stairs spinning towards the bottom. But there wasn't just two floors; walkways connected different platforms around the cave, with one huge one in the middle. They seemed to be floating from where I was standing, but at an angled view, large, circular pillars held each platform up, giving the whole area a very James Bond feel to it.

My HQ was laughable compared to this.

"No time to dawdle. We need to get you acquainted with the others."

He started bouncing down the stairs, propelling himself forwards using the banisters like it was some sort of race.

As I skipped behind him, a few pairs of figures came into view in the corner of my eye. They were all standing on the main platform, which was a circular slab of silver steel with a hollowed out semi-circle desk and TV screens the size of an entire wall of my HQ.

I caught a glimpse of a figure dressed in hot pink while the rest were dressed mainly in darker versions of the primary colours.

It wasn't long before I was stood next to TerraStorm as four pairs of eyes soaked up the newest member of their heist plan. But instead of edging myself behind TerraStorm in awkwardness, I reminded myself that I was completely unidentifiable and this was the only first impression I was going to be allowed to make.