The Sidekick Club

2.0

Nefarious was crazy. Absolutely, positively, completely bonkers.

Emily peered through a window of the Deming-Porter building and watched as the chaos unfolded below. A lot of people were about to die, and she could only stand by and watch.

Nefarious hadn't given her much of a choice when he told her she had to guard the biggest bomb. He told her to make sure no one got to it before it went off. He had told her that if she refused, he would compel her to walk off a bridge, or to murder her own mother.

She couldn't let that happen. She had to stay with it until the end, and the only reason she would survive was because of her powers. The bomb couldn't touch her.

Emily smoothed her mask subconsciously as she watched Nefarious prance around the place in utter joy. Something was seriously wrong with him.

Mr. Dependable was down there. She could see the blue and gold of his suit quite clearly from her position, and she admired the way he evacuated innocent bystanders before rushing instantly back into danger. She wondered if Talon was down there too, but figured he probably wouldn't be on the ground if he was. That and Nefarious certainly wouldn't be looking so cheerful in the presence of the hero.

Suddenly, she saw Talon. His suit held more gold then blue on his chest and arms, obviously meant to be more eye catching than his sidekick's suit, and she couldn't help but snort at how cocky that was.

Emily smirked as Talon punched Nefarious in the face. Lord knew he deserved it. Then, all at once, Talon rocketed into the sky with Nefarious in his grasp. Emily pressed her face against the window and peered upwards until she lost sight of them. They were probably on the roof now, which meant it was time for her to switch on her earpiece to await further instructions.

Looking back down at the ground, she noticed Mr. Dependable had disappeared. She scanned the outer edges of the plaza, but he was nowhere in sight. With a heavy sigh, Emily turned to face the door, knowing she would probably meet him soon.

In truth, Emily hoped Talon would finish Nefarious once and for all. It was not in the nature of a hero to kill someone, but if he was dead, her life could finally go back to normal. That's all she truly wanted. Normality. 

She was tired of villains, of heroes, of sidekicks, bombs, plots, and walking through walls. She was tired of everything her powers had brought her.

All she wanted was to go to school, date a guy, read a book, or anything that would be considered normal.

But Emily wouldn't be getting any of that. By the looks of Nefarious's plans, he could end up succeeding, and if he did, Emily pitied this city. 

The loud blaring of the fire alarm ripped through the building seconds before the sprinklers came on. Emily turned intangible to avoid getting wet and waited.

Mr. Dependable was smart. He was evacuating the building. Glancing down at the bomb in the middle of the room, she saw that the time read ten minutes and thirty eight seconds.

Mr. Dependable better hurry up if he was going to stop it.

It wasn't long after that that she heard heavy footsteps pounding down the hall. Knowing it was the sidekick, and knowing she had to do something to stop Nefarious, Emily unlocked the door and poked her head out.

"Hey, Mr. Dependable," she called down the hallway. He had just passed the door and whipped around to face her at the sound of his name. Ignoring his frown, she kept her tone impassive and said, "The bomb is in here."

"You're trying to trick me, aren't you," he accused.

Raising both her hands in surrender she, stepped aside and allowed him to see into the room.

She heard him swear under his breath as he took in the sight.

"I'm not going to stop you, but you better hurry. You've got less than ten minutes to defuse it."

Mr. Dependable looked her over skeptically before rushing into the room. He knelt beside the bomb and and pried open the control box. Looking down at the jumble of wires, he bit his lip and stared.

"Do you know how to defuse a bomb?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not exactly something they teach you in high school," he grumbled. In truth the most experience he'd had with defusing bombs was watching it being done on hokey television shows. Something about cutting a wire, but was it red, or black, or yellow?

Walking over to the window, Emily peered up in an attempt to see the hero and villain. She couldn't see anything but blue skies, which she found ironic, being as this day was turning out to be so gloomy.

Sighing, she turned back to Mr. Dependable to see him starting to panic.

"Oh God," he breathed as he prepared to cut a handful of wires at once.

"No!" she suddenly called, making him pause in his endeavors. "If you cut all of those, it'll definitely explode."

"Why should I believe you? You're probably just here to make sure I don't disarm it," he narrowed his eyes at her.

She'd had enough.

"Do you think I want to be here? Do you think I want to be helping that psychotic creep up there? News flash, Mr. Dependable! I don't! That man has been dangling shit over my head for years. I know what he has planned and I've been trying to stop it without losing my head!"

"What do you mean?" he asked skeptically.

"Who do you think helped Edison escape? Who do you think is the only reason he isn't dead? Who is allowing you a chance to defuse a bomb right now?"

Realizing that he got distracted from what he was doing, Mr. Dependable turned back to the bomb to see only four minutes remained on the countdown.

"It's the red one," she pointed out from over his shoulder. "It connects the countdown to the fuse. Cut it and the fuse won't be able to receive the signal."

Blindly putting his faith in her, Mr. Dependable reached down, held his breath, and cut the wire.

The clock stopped, and as he dropped the wire cutters back where he'd found them, he let out a shakey breath.

She hadn't been lying.

"Once I find some dirt on him," Emily said, referring to her villain, "I'm coming to you guys to help. He can't get away with what he's planning. For everyone's sake."